Stargate Millennium: Abyss
by StargateMillennium
Summary: A new spin-off series: Technology has made us arrogant. Knowledge has made us ignorant. A freak accident traps Martin on another planet. Coming face to face with the scope of the universe, Charles Martin will soon learn, in spite of how far the Tau'ri have come, how small and insignificant they really are.
1. Chapter 1

Previously on Stargate Millennium:

When the SGC launched the Millennium Expedition, they knew they would be in a galaxy further than they ever explored before. They knew they would face things unlike anything they have ever seen before. They were ready for anything. Almost anything. They did not expect to meet something like the Harvesters, and enigmatic race of monsters responsible for mass disappearances all across NGC 300; from landmasses as small as a country to entire planets stripped of all life and living organic material. And they have come no closer to understanding this mysterious race of creatures.

But it wasn't just the Harvesters the Expedition had run into. They had made enemies of the Ror'char, a galactic superpower that believed in peace through control. However, the Expedition had to temporarily ally themselves with this foe in order to save a team that had been kidnapped by a band of space pirates. The assistance of the renowned pirate-hunters proved useful and they were able to save half the kidnapped team.

After a brief visit back to Earth, the Expedition returned with new recruits and more helping hands, including a Jay Felger. Unwilling to put up with his screwups, General Mercer assigned Doctor Chen to deal with Felger. While initially dismissing Felger as a simple screw up, Chen came to see Felger's untapped potential under his childish antics. With some work, they managed to come up with a system to utilize his ingenuity while minimizing his chance for failure. Now only time will tell if this new system will prove effective.

* * *

P90? How about an MP7? SCAR PDW? The P90 was certainly the oldest of her options, but the military still used it for one simple reason: it works. It has proven itself in the past and made itself the SG team's standard issue weapon. But, the times were changing and so was their technology.

P90. Nova chose to choose the weapon she was most familiar with. Though, she knew Chen preferred the HKMP7. Mercer intended to gather the Department Heads and discuss revising certain policies such as which standard issue weapon to give each team. She would decide this later, when she got back from the mission.

She had her dark auburn hair tied into a pony tail behind her head. She was geared up in black battledress uniform and tactical vest. Her boots could be heard clopping on the ground as she took an ark (more on this tech, please) to the conference room. One press of the button and the doorway would open straight to her destination as if they were adjacent rooms even though she was across the entire city. The conference room overlooked the gate room so meeting up with her team would be easy. As she stepped out of the doorway she was surprised to find Jennifer Hailey and Isaac McFee chilling in the chairs.

"What're you two doing here?" Nova asked, cradling her P90 in her arms. "Didn't Felger invite you two for a movie or something?"

"Well, me mostly," Hailey corrected. "He was hoping to have me and Soren watch a movie with him. I just invited Isaac too."

"I see," Nova said, nodding in amusement.

"It's not like that!" Hailey quickly barked. Nova gave a sarcastically skeptical nod at that phrase. Jennifer may not be able to stand McFree's juvenility but everyone knew they were closer than close.

"So you gonna take Felger on that offer?" Nova asked. Hailey just shrugged.

"It's not my type of movie," she replied. "He showed us the preview. Too much of a mindless action movie, pointless explosions, gratuitous violence…"

"Yeah, I forgot. You're a Disney-fan."

"Good special effects though," McFree pointed out.

"They always put the best effects in the trailer," Nova scoffed, rolling eyes. Isaac didn't seem to care about that statement through.

"That one scene where the car hit that red fountain and blew up was cool though. What are those things anyways?"

Hailey paused, trying to figure out what he was referring to.

"You mean the fire hydrant?" Jennifer asked.

"Wait, what?"

"You said 'red fountain'. You mean the fire hydrant, right?"

McFree stared at the two ladies in confusion and they exchanged confused glances over his confusion.

"Don't they have those in your country?" Terra Nova asked.

"No," Isaac answered. Nova and Hailey just stared at him in shock.

"So what do you do when stuff's on fire?" Nova stuttered.

"You call for a firetruck."

"Yeah, but where do you think the firetruck get the water from?" Jennifer asked.

"We plug it into the ground."

"WHAT?!" Nova and Hailey both gawked, trying to imagine firefighters rolling up and just shoving an end of their hose into the dirt.

"Our fire hydrants are in the ground," McFree explained. "They don't stick out like that." Hailey and Nova stared at each other in surprise. "Why would you build a fire hydrant like that for it to get hit and explode when you can have it buried in the ground?" He didn't know if Hailey or Nova even heard his comment.

"I'm genuinely shocked," Hailey remarked. "That's just crazy."

"It isn't crazy! What you Americans have makes no sense! You have something you can kick and explode water into your face."

"Ok, c'mon," Terra chimed in. "You can't make it explode water just by kicking it. Your car could hit it and it wouldn't explode."

"Yeah, but your car can't hit something that's buried under the road."

"Well then, how do you know where it is?" Hailey asked. "The firetruck's just gonna show up and everyone's just going to be running around looking for a hole in the sidewalk?"

"It's marked! There's a sign right next to the hydrant. We can find the hydrant and not have worry about running it over."

"I'm pretty sure I'm more likely to get struck by lightning than hit a fire hydrant," Nova said. "Big giant red can, easier to see, easier to access than a hole in the ground."

"What're the kids in the inner city going to do on a hot summer day?" Nova asked. "How're they gonna pop a hydrant?"

"You mean just let the hydrant spray water everywhere?" Isaac coughed. "There's no such thing as popping a hydrant? You people seriously have that? It's a bloomin' waste of water."

"It's not a waste," Jennifer Hailey remarked. "It's called 'beat'n the heat'."

"If you don't cool off, you could die, and that's called a 'waste of life'," Nova added.

The three were about to continue arguing when a familiar old man came strolling up the stairs.

"Major Nova," he called out, his mouth partially covered by his giant mustache. "Your team is ready."

"Yes, General Mercer," Nova said. "I'll see you guys," she said to Hailey and McFree with a wave before jogging down the stairs to the gate room. Major Hailey stood up and walked to the railing at the edge of the conference room with General Mercer. She watched as the silver gate was dialed up, each opal chevron lighting up before the shimmering wormhole was formed.

"General," Hailey said as she watched Nova enter the giant blue puddle. "Do you know why a country would put a fire hydrant in the ground?"

"I could hear your conversation from my office," Mercer remarked. Hailey turned red with embarrassment. She didn't realize that they were that loud. The last thing you want to hear is your boss saying he can hear your idle chit chat from his desk. "I would first recommend you familiarize yourself with dry-barrel and wet-barrel hydrants."

-.-

Martin had been snickering the entire mission. The moment he stepped foot on the planet, there was a smirk on his face. The planet they were exploring was a barren desert, gray sand stretching the landscape for miles, made even more depressing by the black clouds that covered the sky so barely any sunlight made it through. The silence only made Charles Martin's snickering even louder.

"What's so funny?" Chen asked irritably.

"Nah, just thinkin," Martin said dismissively.

"Thinking," Chen repeated. "Now I know you're lying." But, it seemed like even Chen's insult could not wipe the smirk off Martin's face. Nova found her subordinate's little argument amusing but even she was beginning to grow curious. Corin was walking on the other side of her, leaning forward, listening eagerly.

"C'mon, Martin," Terra Nova insisted. "Is it what I told you about Felger asking Hailey to watch to movie with him?"

"Hailey and Soren," he confessed. "He's pulled Soren into watching another movie with him."

"Felger always fawned over Carter," Chen commented. "Guess it makes sense he wants to become best buddies with her handpicked pupil."

"Thing is, Hailey said 'no' but Soren said 'yes'," Nova pointed out. Terra paused for a moment, thinking about Soren's antics and mannerisms. "Ok, he probably didn't say 'yes'. He probably just grunted."

"Which movie is it this time?" Corin laughed.

"Hell if I know," Martin chortled. "Seriously, is he only doing this out of pity?" Aside from a few snarky remarks, Soren was a fierri with only an angry expression plastered on his face. Yet this man who seemed to be perpetually angry was actually agreeing to spend time with Jay Felger, the headache of the expedition.

"To be fair," Nova spoke up. "He's not the screw up used to be. Chen did a pretty good job."

"I fixed him as much as he could be fixed," Chen said. "The rest is on him."

"Congratulations, Bob the Builder," Martin said, patting an irritated Chen on the back. "I knew you could fix it."

That was a comment that sent the rest of the team laughing.

"Don't call me 'Bob the Builder'," Chen said flatly.

Bang.

The sound was so sudden that Nova and Martin threw themselves to the ground, instinct kicking in. Chen threw his arm around Corin and knelt down. The sound echoed across the landscape. It had come out of nowhere with no warning, shattering the silence like glass. They were just having a conversation just a few moments ago and suddenly it sounded like they were under attack.

"What the hell!" Nova exclaimed. "Was that lightning?!"

As if to answer, a second bang rattled the land. It wasn't anywhere near as loud but, more importantly, they saw the bolt of electricity streak from the clouds and hit the ground far in the distance. Nova looked to the sky in horror, realizing those were storm clouds. But these made the lightning storms on Earth look tame.

"Back to the gate, double time!" Nova ordered, jumping to her feet, but Chen tackled her to the ground.

"Stay down!" he barked, holding the team leader close to the ground. "Look around! We're the tallest thing for miles!"

"What do we do then?!" Corin asked in a panic. At least if they were shot at they could shoot back and make a beeline for the gate. Now, they had no idea what to do.

"Stay low and take small steps!" Martin explained. Chen was an engineer and knew the mechanics of electricity. Martin was a hunter and outdoorsman and he knew about surviving lightning storms.

Running to the gate would've taken ten minutes. Crouch-walking there took even longer. Bolts of lightning shot out of the sky, striking the sand, burning it instantly, blackened craters left behind where it impacted. And it was getting worse. More bolts of electricity fired from the clouds.

The sight of the Stargate was a breath of relief for the team. Corin crawled up and quickly began punching in the address back to Millennium. The silver DHD glowed as each symbol engaged, the silvery ring spinning and powering up. The milky white opal-shaped chevrons locked in the coordinates.

The last chevron was engaged, the wormhole forming in the ring with a familiar whoosh. Corin quickly punched in the code into his GDO.

"Alright, let's go!" he shouted. He started crouch-walking for the gate, his team right behind him, but another bang practically ruptured their eardrums. Corin felt the air throw him forward, dust and sand raining down on him. He looked behind him, realizing everyone had been knocked down and he spotted why. A lightning bolt had hit the DHD, the top pedestal exploding in a shower of twisted metal and crystal, the panels that held the symbols flying off in all directions. The DHD was intact but the interface was demolished, the white center crystal shattered like glass and the tiles scattered across the sand.

Nova looked at the demolished DHD, her eyes widening in horror. If that gate shuts down, there was no going home.

"Double time!" she ordered. Corin was already in front of the wormhole so he stood up and threw himself through the puddle. Chen's eyes widened in horror when Nova got to her feet and bolted for the gate. She was so close to the gate she figured she to get there in a single dash, maybe even keep the wormhole open with her arm. But her stride was too wide. Suddenly, another bolt of lighting shot out of the sky, hitting the broken DHD once more. The electricity discharged through the ground. But now it had a better conductor to travel through: Nova's legs. Her eyes widened as she gave a final gasp before collapsing to the ground in a heap.

"Terra!"

"Major!"

Chen stayed low and made sure he took small steps as he practically crawled up to her, putting his fingers on her neck. No pulse. Martin was about to join him when a third bolt hit the DHD, the pedestal exploding apart, leaving a smoldering umbrella-shaped pedestal of twisted and burnt metal. Martin felt the explosion punch him away, launching him back from the gate.

Chen pulled out his knife and began slicing off Nova's vest and equipment. He going to have to carry her the rest of the way and the last thing he needed was all that extra weight. He didn't know what to do, but he did know someone who would. He had to get Terra to Kara Osborn as quickly as possible.

"GO!" Martin yelled, getting back to his feet. This was the slowest rush to the gate possible and it was excruciating. Another bang echoed across the landscape as lightning found a new target to strike, something taller and even more conductive: the Stargate.

"Here goes nothing!" Chen yelled, jumping to his feet. It was a suicidal risk but he bolted across the ground, his 'run': an awkward skip, trying to make sure his feet were never on the ground at the same time. He ran across the concrete platform that held the gate, throwing himself through.

Charles continued his steady pace, knowing that new matter going through the wormhole meant the gate's timer had reset. He had several good seconds before it shuts down.

Another bang and another bolt hit the gate, the wormhole flickering. Then another bolt hit it again. It was his turn to take a risk. He got to his feet and ran for the gate. For the last stretch, he threw all his energy into his legs and leapt at the wormhole just as another bolt of lightning hit the gate once more.

-.-

Back in Millennium, Corin had arrived first, alerting the doctors to their situation. He was already being checked out. Doctor Kara Osborn and Doctor Victor Kauffmann were also at the ready, a stretcher just in case. Mercer was in the control room, glaring at the gate. This planet was on the list of planets the IOA wanted teams to visit due to its violent weather. Looks like the 'test' was going as planned.

Suddenly two figures, or rather one since Chen was tightly holding Nova in his arms, shot out of the gate like a cannon. They hit the ground tumbling, Steven wrapping his arms around her head as they were sent rolling across the gate room floor, coming to a stop when they hit the back wall.

"Kara!" he called out in panic, laying back, snarling in pain. "Her heart stopped!"

Doctor Osborn didn't even bother questioning. She immediately got to work, taking Terra and putting her on a stretcher. He couldn't hear Kara's conversations with the other doctors, only erratic beeping from the machine hooked up to Nova and something about 'ventricular fibrillation'. Meanwhile, Kauffmann started checking on Chen. He put his fingers against the man's neck.

"Erratic heart rate," Kauffmann said with a heavy German accent. "I think you have a concussion as well."

"I'm fine," Chen groaned. "What about Terra?"

As if to answer his question, Kara's commanding voice echoed through the gate room.

"CLEAR!"

A controlled burst of electricity shot through Nova's body. Kara checked Nova's pulse again.

"We have a pulse!" she announced. "Get her to the infirmary!" She then rushed to Chen as the gate behind them shut down. "I'll take it from here," she told Kauffmann. "Keep an eye on Major Nova."

"Ja!" Kauffmann barked, rushing to the stretcher that was now carrying Nova away.

"Steven, how long did she not have a pulse?" Kara asked, checking on Chen, taking out her pen light and flashing his eyes.

"Minute, minute and a half at most," Chen breathed, completely exhausted.

"But no more than two?"

"Not a chance."

"Alright, she'll be fine then," Kara said, helping Chen to his feet. Corin was uninjured so he could walk out on his own but Chen had to lean on Kara for support.

"Wait a minute," Chen muttered. "Where's Charles?!"

They all looked around. The gate had closed but Charles Martin was nowhere to be seen.

STARGATE

MILLENNIUM

The steady beeps of the heart monitor could be heard in the infirmary along with Nova's shallow breathing. Corin sat in a chair on the other side of the infirmary, already fast asleep. Chen was in the bed next to Nova's, pouting over his own injuries. They both had been taken out of their black battle dress uniforms for white hospital gowns. Chen hated hospital gowns. He glanced at Nova, his frustration and worry intertwining.

"She's going to be fine," Kara said from the other side of the room. Chen looked at Doctor Osborn as she walked in, a box of medicine in her arms to restock her shelves. She set the box on the table before going over to the white wood cabinet. "You're actually more likely to survive a lightning strike than any other form of electrocution," she added.

"That makes no sense," Chen said bluntly. He knew that, unlike him, Kara believes in lying to people for their own good sometimes. Guess he shouldn't be surprised; she was a doctor and this sometimes meant telling patients that their injuries are not as bad as they actually are. If your patient is fatally wounded, she couldn't exactly say 'yeah, you're going to die in five hours'.

"It's called 'flashover'," Osborn explained. "The lightning is strong but brief so it conducts around the body instead of through it. So, she'll be fine."

"Physically," Chen said gruffly. "Don't lightning strike victims suffer psychological issues?"

"Well," Kara sighed, putting the medicine onto the shelves. "I'm afraid psychology isn't my field but there's still a good chance she'll pull through unharmed."

"Kara," Chen growled. He wanted the blunt truth.

"Fine," Kara groaned, rolling her eyes. "Look, some lightning strike survivors come out unscathed. Others face long-term issues that can't be solved. You said she in cardiac arrest for less than two minutes so at the very least any brain damage won't be from blood loss but we won't know if there was brain damage from electrocution."

"You said something about 'ventri-fibillation' or something?"

"Ventricular fibrillation," Osborn corrected. "Her heart was essentially vibrating instead of pumping blood. I've done what I can with the Alliance medical technology we have but all we can do is wait until she wakes up and see what happens."

Chen huffed in irritation before tossing himself back against his bed as Kara muttered something to herself.

"I can hear you saying stuff about me," Chen barked.

"Oh I was just thinking: if you worked as many hours as your attitude did then you'd be the head of every department here," Kara remarked, receiving an irritated glare from Steven. Before they could continue arguing, Hailey and Felger both walked into the room.

"Now that's just wrong," Chen muttered when he saw the duo walk in. He knew that he was the one that was helped Felger but it still looked strange seeing the former-train-wreck walk in alongside the Expedition's prodigy like they were equals or best friends. Then again, calling Felger a 'former train-wreck' gave him more credit than he deserved. At the moment, they were simply giving the 'train' a very specific set of tracks to run on to make sure it didn't wreck.

"We heard about what happened," Hailey said. "You ok?"

"I'm fine but Kara insists I rest for a bit," Chen grumbled. He turned his attention to Felger. "What're you doing here?"

"Just wanted to check on you," Felger said nervously. "I already turned in my blueprints to the engineering team, and I already turned in the lab report to General Mercer and-"

"I'll take your word for it," Chen immediately. He was not in the mood for Felger's babbling. "I heard Mercer had a MALP to check the planet. Did you find Charles?' Hailey shook her head sadly in response.

"The planet's completely different from what you described," she explained. "Your report said the place as a desert but the place was thriving."

"Well, good for the planet," Chen remarked sarcastically. "You wanna answer the question?"

Hailey just looked at her friend sadly.

"I'm sorry, Chen. Martin wasn't there."

Steven sighed and put his hands to his chin, taking in the new data.

"I don't want to ask this," Kara spoke up, closing the cabinet. "But, is it possible his body was buried?"

"There was a lot of lightning but no wind," Steven pointed out. "Even if it did, we can't exactly go back there."

"Yeah, I saw the footage," Jennifer remarked. "The DHD's fried."

"Yeah, a bolt hit the DHD the moment the gate was dialed, which makes no sense" Chen added, recalling the giant blast of electricity hitting the pedestal. "Shouldn't the lightning hit the gate? It's kinda the tallest thing there and a superconductor."

"Well, both the gate and DHD produce an electric field but the power source inside the DHD produces a stronger field than the gate," Felger recited. "If the field's strong enough, it could produce a positive ionic channel that coerces it to strike the DHD first before the gate, like artificial feelers. That might be why but I don't know, I'm not a meteorologist."

"Guess that's why the bolt decided to the dial home device first," Chen remarked. "Of course that means once the DHD blew up lightning would strike the second strongest field and tallest thing there. Still…that doesn't explain what happened to Charles."

It was only then realization struck Hailey like a bolt of lightning.

"Actually," she said. "I think I know."

-.-

The world was black. He couldn't see. He could only feel dirt beneath the palm of his hand. He could feel the cold mud against his forehead. The world was still spinning…or was it him that was spinning? There was no way for him to know anymore. At least, he could hear. He could hear the rain hitting the ground around him. He could hear the sounds of insects chirping like crickets in the underbrush. He could hear birds in the trees. He could hear…whispering. A soft hollow whisper that seemed to echo through the air. He couldn't understand what was being said but it sounded like people whispering amongst each other. No. It sounded like the trees were whispering to each other. No, that wasn't right either. It was as if there were just whispers floating through the air. And it was getting louder. He could hear footsteps coming up to him. If he could just open his eyes he was sure he would see whoever it was standing next to him, kneeling above him. But it was too late. He felt the world fade again.

Charles let out a gasp. He wasn't lying on the dirt ground anymore. In fact, he was lying on his back on something quite soft and comfortable. He was lying on a couch. He let out a groan and sat up, taking in his surroundings. He knew for a fact he had been outside but now he was inside what looked like a tavern, sitting on a couch in front of a fireplace.

He looked down and realize he wasn't in his uniform anymore. He was wearing a plain blue shirt with jeans. A pair of socks and boots had even been set at the base of the couch for him.

The room was lit up by the bright sunlight gleaming through the window, bouncing off every reflective surface. He continued scanning the room, looking at the arrangement of chairs and tables. When he looked to his right he saw an open area, some sort of lobby, a tiled floor that gleamed in the sun. There were a number of alien guests busy eating and going about their business. There was an antenok getting food from a counter, an icthyan sipping a drink at a table, and even a sireen male and human female sitting on the couch in front of the giant television hanging off the wall.

"Ah," the man at the front desk said when he saw the man waking up. "You're finally awake." Martin put on the socks before taking the boots and tapping them against the floor. It was second nature to him to tap out his shoes to make sure nothing was living in it when you put it on. Nothing fell out so Martin put his feet in and stood up. He walked over to the front desk, still a bit wobbly after his ordeal but aside from that he was fine. It felt like he had spent an entire day working out and had just woken from a nap after the workout. In a way, this was accurate. Bolting to the Stargate was its own workout and he was knocked unconscious after stepping out of the Stargate so he did take a nap. Still, he had no idea where he was or how he got there.

"What happened?" He asked the figure working behind the desk. "Where am I?" Charles practically jumped out of his skin when the man turned around and Martin came face to face with an insect. Two massive bug eyes stared back. There was no hair on that head, only a mat of bristles on his chin. There were no visible nose or ears either but Martin was confident they were there somewhere. His body was humanoid but his skin was a gray carapace.

"Bugger me!" He yelped in shock. Most of the 'aliens' in the Milky Way and Pegasus were human. He still had to get used to how most of the aliens in Caldwell 70 were not human.

"What?" the bug-man asked, taking the cigar out of his mouth and putting it on the ash tray. "What's with that reaction?"

Martin wanted to answer but he could only stutter.

"You're...you're a bug..." He kept staring the man up and down. Martin half expected antennae and long narrow insect limbs but he didn't see any. There were no antennae and the bug-man's arms and legs were as thick as any human's though the only reason he could tell was because the insect-person was wearing black shorts and a brown T-shirt.

"Oh yeah, you guys are new at gate travel," the bug man joked with a friendly tone. "You don't recognize all the different races yet."

"Uh…just new to the neighborhood," Martin managed to say.

"Ah, so you know gate travel, but you don't get around much."

"Yeah, something like that. How'd you know, though?"

"Oh, your uniform," the bug explained. "I saw a patch on the shoulder that said 'Millennium Expedition' on it. Word of the new Millennium Outlaws has been getting around."

"Getting around?" Charles repeated.

"Well, the other nations in this galaxy probably won't know you, space pirates are space pirates, but no way you can throw down with the Ror'char and the Quinterans without the other pirate gangs and guilds hearing about it."

The thought didn't occur to Martin at first but the moment the bug-man said 'pirate gangs' reality struck him.

"This is a pirate haven!"

The barkeep chuckled at this reaction as he walked around the counter.

"Call me Ashr," he said, holding out his hand. At least some aliens understood the concept of a handshake. "I'm the owner of the haven's tavern here."

"Ok…" Martin said awkwardly, knowing he was shaking hands with an insect. Would he even be considered an insect? He only had four limbs. Still, the man looked like someone bred with a dragonfly.

"If you don't mind me asking," Charles stuttered. "What are you?"

"I'm a narkoss and I know other planets have bugs so you can stop making bug puns."

It took Martin a moment to realize what he was talking about.

"Oh, it wasn't you," He quickly explained. "In the country on the planet I come from, 'bugger' is an expression. It wasn't meant to be a jab at you."

"I'll take your word for it," Ashr said dismissively with a shrug before returning to his spot behind the counter. "Been working this job too long to be offended by everything. Be careful though: narkoss don't like being called bugs any more than icthyan like being called fish."

"I'll keep that in mind," Charles said, cracking his neck. He was now up and about but his body was still stiff as all hell. "So what happened to me anyways?"

"Haven't the faintest idea," Ashr replied, typing something into his computer. "Arcturus found you in the woods and brought you here. I decided to clean you up and let you rest."

"Was there anyone else with me?" Charles asked. He remembered that Corin, Chen, and the Major went in right before him. They should have been waiting on the other side.

"Well, Arcturus didn't bring anyone else back," Ashr replied, putting his hand to his chin thoughtfully. "Lose someone?"

"You might say that. Three of my friends went through the Stargate before me."

Charles played the event in his head again. He was sure of it. He saw Corin go through. Then Chen took the Major through. So where were they? And how did he end up here instead of Millennium?

"Sorry, bud, but you were the only one brought here. If any of the less friendly pirates found them then your friends are gone."

Martin knew what Ashr meant. Slavers, raiders, scavengers, head hunters, there were plenty of space pirates that would benefit finding a group of lost humans in the woods. Slavers to kidnap and sell them. Raiders and scavengers to kill them and loot their corpses. If any of those pirate bands found his friends then he wasn't going to see them ever again. But if they didn't then his friends were still somewhere out there.

"I need to get back to my place and mount a search party," He concluded. Martin hated the prospect of leaving his friends behind but he knew it was a waste of time scowering (the landscape by himself. The expedition was considered space pirates too so the haven probably wouldn't mind.

"Your place? Well, bud, if you got here via the Stargate I'm afraid you're stuck here for a bit."

Charles froze when he heard that. Ashr said it so casually, but it sent chills down his spine.

"Why's that?"

"The thing's been busted for days now. Sent one of the haven's gate experts to see if they can fix it. Don't suppose you can hitch a ride with someone."

Martin shook his head in response. He didn't know where Millennium was and even if he did he was not going to just give its location to pirates. Charles gave a long sigh. He was hoping to get back to Millennium and get help looking for his friends. But now it looked like he was trapped in general.

"Bugger," Martin muttered in frustration. It was only after a few seconds he realized Ashr was staring at him from that comment. "I wasn't talking about you!"

-.-

Hailey's hands flew across the keyboard in front of her. Chen may have just been released from the infirmary but while he was in there, she decided to get a head start on figuring out what happened to Martin.

"You know," Felger said from behind her. "I could help you with that." He stared at the galaxy map Jennifer Hailey was working on, the three dimensional hologram of a star cluster shown on screen. She was working at the computer console right in front of the map, trying to adjust the algorithm she created. Ok, fine. The algorithm was made by both of them. He came up with the formula but it was so chalk full of issues and errors it looked like a stroke of idiocy. She worked out all the tweaks and now it looked like a stroke of genius. Still, it didn't mean she wanted him implementing the thing. He came up with good ideas but he rarely ever made them work.

She looked around the control room. She could tell the technicians were all very uncomfortable having Felger in one of the most important rooms in the city. Donavan had his hand on the wheelchair controller, ready to wheel out of there at a moment's notice. Another technician had his hand on the DHD, ready to dial to some planet as an escape.

"I'm fine…" she said calmly, not wanting Jay Felger to touch her work. Felger has improved but his reputation wasn't going to vanish any time soon.

"Major," a voice called out behind her. She glanced over her shoulder to spot General Mercer make his way up the stairs to the control room with Chen right behind him. "Got anything?" Hailey looked at Chen, who took a seat in an empty chair near another computer. "You ok, Steven?"

"Yeah," Felger echoed. "You ok? You did just have an en-lightning experience." Jay chuckled at his own joke but Hailey and Chen merely gave him an irritated glare. More precisely, Chen looked like he was going to tackle and strangle Jay Felger. "He's fine," Felger concluded nervously. All eyes returned to Hailey. She was the one working on this problem.

"Do you have something, Major?" General Mercer asked.

"You could say that, sir," Hailey replied, turning around and leaning against the console. "We know that Wolf Pack got caught in a lightning storm. And we know that Corin Nevec, Major Nova, and Steven Chen made it back through the gate. Which leaves the question: What happened to Lieutenant Martin?"

"You have a theory?"

"Well!" Felger spoke up eagerly before Hailey could respond. "We know if enough energy is directed into the wormhole, it can jump destinations! That is how it sent General O'Neill and Colonel Carter to Antarctica."

"And how we dealt with the black hole," Hailey finished in a much calmer tone than Felger's.

"You believe that the lightning storm caused the wormhole to jump to another gate?" Chen asked, remembering how bad the storm was.

"It's a strong possibility. Once the ionic channel from the DHD was gone it would strike the tallest thing. But this creates one other issue."

"And that is?" Mercer asked. "Could you not devise a way to calculate the distance of the wormhole jump from the energy being directed into the wormhole?"

"That's the problem. Since the wormhole wasn't meant to jump between gates, the amount of energy gone into it is unpredictable. Increasing the energy doesn't necessarily increase the distance of the jump; only the potential distance of the jump." Hailey turned to the computer to show what she meant. A single tiny point in the hologram of the cluster lit up. "Doctor Felger and I created an algorithm to calculate what planets the gate could have jumped to-"

"Felger," Chen repeated, looking at Jay who beamed at his name being spoken. "Nice job."

"Back on point," Mercer interrupted. "Major Hailey, how many gates could the wormhole have jumped to?" Hailey looked at the hologram, pointing at the glowing point in the cluster.

"This was the planet they were on: LG9-P17. And…" A blue sphere began to expand from the planet, a few other planets lighting up as they were encompassed. "And these are the planets the wormhole could have jumped based on the amount of energy the gate would receive from a lightning bolt."

"Major, that is a significant area," Mercer remarked. "Even in the past when the wormhole has jumped it did not run the possibility of a space that large."

"That's because it was due to explosions of some sort. Only a small fraction of that energy is directed into the wormhole and the rest of it and being directed in all other directions. A lightning bolt has several billion joules of energy, that nearly the amount of energy in one ton of TNT and it's all being directed into the wormhole, especially if it strikes the gate."

Mercer looked at the hologram, his face stiff as stone.

"Donavan," Mercer barked. His adjutant wheeled up beside the General. "I want three teams organized. We're going to quickly explore each of those gates starting with the ones in uninhabitable locations."

"Uninhabitable?" Chen repeated, standing from his chair.

"They will be easiest to check off the list," Mercer commented. He stared at the galaxy map. This was going to be a long day.

-.-

"When it's silent, I can hear them: whispers in the back of my mind. They are coming."

What was this feeling? It felt like he was floating through space. In fact, after looking around, he realized he was. He was weightless in the nothingness. All around him, white stars dotted the black canvas. A nearby sun filled the void with a warm light, a single planet in sight between him and the giant sun. He stared at the glowing orb, suddenly spotting something in the distance. Something rose from beneath him, its figure blocking out the sun. The glow from behind it cast a shadow over its form so that only its glowing eyes could be seen, the glowing eyes piercing the darkness.

Martin stared at the massive beast as it moved forward, treading on the nothingness of space like it was solid ground. There was planet in the way. It reached forward, its claw seizing the mass and moving it aside. Its gaze refocused on Martin, its arms reaching for him.

Martin's eyes fluttered open as the world came back into view. It was just a dream.

He let out a soft groan, adjusting his position against the tree. Ashr had returned his uniform, equipment, and ion rifle so at least he got all his stuff back. But, he was still trapped there until whoever was fixing the gate had finished. Earth had gate experts so he guessed he shouldn't be surprised that other civilizations had their own. He had quickly visited the gate earlier. Like Ashr said, the thing was broken; the DHD wouldn't charge up or anything. Which meant he was stuck there. He the only way off the planet was by ship, and that meant asking the pirates for a ride. Even if he could convince one of them to lend a hand, he didn't know where he would go or whether or not his driver could be trusted. He had no choice but to wait for the gate to be fixed.

With nothing to do he decided to spend the rest of the day in the woods. He climbed a tree and found a nice high branch to sit upon and stare at the horizon. But he couldn't stay out there forever. He carefully climbed back to the ground and headed back to the tavern.

As he made his way back to the pirate haven he couldn't get his mind off that strange dream. He recognized the first person he heard. It was McFree. But that statement wasn't the only thing he couldn't get his mind from. What was that thing he saw in his dream? It seemed impossible and yet he couldn't shake the feeling it was accurate.

Martin shook his head and cleared his mind. He looked over his shoulder, glancing toward the setting sun. Ashr probably won't let him rent a room without any money but he could probably sleep on the couch. Worse comes to worse, he'll just sleep outside or in the woods.

The haven was a nice sight, even if it was where he was stuck for who knows how long. It was a more primitive town, countless huts of sheet metal dotting the landscape. Even the tavern was just a larger metal hut. A particularly tall building sat beside a large grassy field acted as their makeshift star port. There were open shelters where merchants would sell their goods during the day.

Martin remembered the last pirate haven he was at. That place was a small town bustling with people. This haven was much smaller, more of an outpost with far fewer people. Hell, he wouldn't call it an outpost. It was more of a rest stop. The town may be small but he could tell it would take a few hours to explore the place.

But Martin didn't intend on just wandering. He wanted to just wait back at the tavern. Ashr would probably tell him when the gate was fixed. Then he could go home. By this point Mercer probably had already organized and launched a search for Wolf Pack. He could only pray they find the others though.

As he stepped back into the tavern he noticed there were way fewer people in it than before. The room was largely empty except for a few people finally taking a moment to themselves. A number of races populated a few of the tables, crowded around a couch, and sprawled on a few chairs, busy eating their dinner and drinking their hearts out. He looked around, trying to decide where to sit. He may be stuck there and he might not have any money to buy food or drinks with but that didn't mean he had to be anti-social. Maybe he could get an update on the current events of the galaxy. It would certainly help the expedition if they knew what they were up against and it would help pass the time.

Still, he had to be very careful around space pirates. Fewer pirates meant fewer chances to get into trouble, but he still couldn't let his guard down. As Martin had learned from his last encounter, some space pirates were some of the most charitable people a person could come across. Others were monsters that would make the worst criminals on earth seem like saints. Still, if he made friends then if any of the bad ones did make a move on him then someone may be willing to step in. Besides, he didn't really have anything else to do.

"Whaddup, mates," he greeted warmly as he walked to a small group relaxed around a table. He knew this could go one of two ways. They would either just stare at him in confusion at the random stranger intruding on their conversation. Or, they would instantly let him in on the conversation. It looked like it was the latter this time.

"Um…same to you!" an icthyan said, a mug of alcohol in his hand. Martin looked at the small group. Along with the icthyan laid back in a chair there was also a human and a narkoss on a sofa, and a antenok standing behind them. They all sat around a small round table, casually laid back. The human and the antenok wore rather simple pants and a shirt while the narkoss and icthyan still kept his armor on. Martin quickly checked off everything he should not say in his head. Do not call icthyan 'fish' and do not call narkoss 'bugs'.

"Not interrupting anything, am I?"

"Nah," the narkoss said dismissively, with a wave of his hand. "Just sharing stories." Martin nodded in response. Jumping in on a random conversation may not be as bad as he thought it would be. "What's your name, bud?"

"Martin…Charles Martin."

Everyone in the group gave a friendly wave as the Australian greeted himself.

"Hey, look at this" the antenok exclaimed eagerly, grabbing Martin by the sleeve and pulling on it, bringing the 'MILLENNIUM EXPEDITION' patch to the front. "We got a Millennium Outlaw here."

Martin watched the icthyan shift uncomfortably in his chair.

"You know," the human spoke up. "He could've killed one of them and took his uniform." The group all quieted down and stared at Martin as if they were awaiting his answer. Martin froze, not sure what to say.

"Spoilers," He remarked with a shrug. The icthyan smirked at the antenok and human as if to laugh as their suspense.

"You seem really eager to meet these outlaws," The narkoss remarked.

"The humans who ended the Blood Hunters," The antenok recited. "The Blood Hunters aren't just what vormians shit out. They're the mold that grow on what vormians shit out. We should be thanking the Millennium Pirates."

"They also had to help the Ror'char in order to do it," The icthyan pointed out. "I'm glad that they offed the slavers, but they sold the rest of us out doing it." The icthyan looked at the floor, his face darkening. "As far as I'm concerned, they're traitors."

Martin felt a rock in his throat. He knew space pirates feared the Ror'char, but it never occurred to him that they could actually hold a grudge for helping them.

"Lesser of two evils," Antenok said.

"The Ror'char are hunting down space pirates!" The icthyan argued. "Even if he sold out slavers he sold out space pirates. He picked the worst evil." Martin could tell this conversation was getting hostile. He slowly began to back away, hoping to sneak off. "Where you think you're going?!" The icthyan barked, noticing Charles inching away. "I'm not done with you."

"Hey," The narkoss snapped. "A little nicer to the stranger."

"Notice the ion rifle on his back," The icthyan barked loudly, loud enough that the entire tavern had begun to quiet down to watch what was happening. "He traded the Blood Hunters for that! What's to say he won't do the same to us?!"

Martin could hear people in the tavern whispering to each other. It sounded like the icthyan's words were getting to everyone.

"I took the rifle from a Ror'char trooper I killed!" Martin immediately barked.

"Likely story." The icthyan snarled, setting his glass down and standing up. The antenok could see what was going down and quickly moved in. With his massive size and strength, he could easily hold the icthyan back with one hand, but the fish man immediately whipped a pistol from his jacket. Then again, calling it a pistol would make it seem smaller than it actually was. Hand cannon would've been more accurate, a massive black revolver with a hexagonal cylinder.

"Hey!" Ashr yelled from the front desk. "Take it outside. You break it, you pay for it!"

Martin glanced at Ashr in shock. He had hoped the bug man would at least come to his aid, but it looked like the only thing he was concerned with was the tavern. Then again, these are space pirates.

The group that had surrounded them had begun to disperse, not wanting to get caught in the violence. Others were filing themselves to the edges of the room, thinking the same.

"Put the gun down, amphibian." The antenok barked, staring down the icthyan. "You're drunk and not thinking straight."

"I'm thinking just fine," The icthyan hissed, turning around and aiming the gun right at Martin. "And I'm thinking I put down the loose cannon before he betrays us all to the Ror'char."

"We helped the Ror'char because the slavers had our friends," Martin explained hurriedly. He was hoping that the truth could convince this guy to stand down. "We both intended on taking them down anyways so we decided to team up."

"And if any other pirate guilds get in your way, will you team up with them again?" The icthyan growled. "So we better be careful pissing off your outlaw gang or you'll team up with the Ror'char against us too?"

Martin could've swallowed his tongue. It was worth a shot, but it looks like he just made things worse. Other pirates were already exchanging glances.

Martin looked around, hoping someone would want to jump in and intervene, but no one did. Only the pirates closest seemed the least bit concerned.

The fish man turned around, aiming his gun right at Martin. Without a moment's hesitation, he pulled the trigger.

A brilliant flash of green light flooded the room, a single loud bang echoing and rattling the metal hut. But there was something else. There was also a flash of blue light and a loud crackle. The icthyan looked up from his barrel in shock.

Just as he pulled the trigger, an armored figure had stepped in front of the gun barrel, a shimmering field of blue energy forming between the figure and the gun, a small pattern of hexagonal plates of energy forming right in front of its owner right where the shot would land.

Martin stared up at the figure, their entire body covered head to toe in sleek gray metal armor. Interwoven plates formed this entire suit, rectangular plates linked together to form the chest piece, the hands and arms completely covered by gauntlets, pauldrons, and rerebrace. Heavy boots shook the ground with every step, the shins covered by greaves, the thighs covered by the tail flaps of the figure's blue knee long uniform. The person's head was encased in a metal helmet, a single band of energy running across the face plate where the eyes would be.

The shimmering wall of energy quickly dissipated, the room darkening once again.

"Of course you would intervene," The icthyan growled. "Leave it to the last Knight of Aurox to stick their nose into someone else's business. Get out of my way, Arcturus."

The icthyan may have been ranting and raving but the armored figure didn't seem to mind the least bit, pacing back and forth in front of him.

"I cannot abide your behavior," Arcturus said calmly, a deep distorted voice emanating from the helmet. "I don't want to hurt you but if you continue this, I will." The armored figure's hand reached to the back and drew forth an ornate longsword from its scabbard, a silver double edge blade and a blue and gold guard and gray hilt and pommel.

The icthyan scoffed at the weapon.

"You bring a sword to a gun fight?" He sneered. He may have sounded confident, but he had seen the shield that protected the figure that was already armored head to toe. Maybe a slower melee attack would go through but there was no way to do that with the longsword. And he could not just shoot Arcturus like any other enemy. In other words, his gun was ineffective and fighting at close quarters was suicide.

"Do not worry," Arcturus replied, tracing the edge of the blade with two fingers. "I bring much more."

The armored figure took a step back, holding the sword at the ready, waiting for the fish man to make the first move. It was subtle, just a tiny flinch in the muscle, but Arcturus saw that the icthyan was preparing to raise his guns. Without a moment's hesitation, Acruturus charged at the fish man, who took aim and began pulling the trigger of his revolver as quickly as possible. Only about three shots landed and all of them were stopped just short of their target, shimmering small hexagonal walls of energy forming right in front of each energy bolt right before they hit their mark.

Staring at this, Martin realized this armored figure, Arcturus, was protected by a personal shield. But it wasn't like a Goa'uld or Ancient personal shield. It didn't immediately engage a bubble of energy around the user. It only formed a few small panels, just enough to stop the attack.

In a few strides, Arcturus had closed the distance with the icthyan. The armored warrior brought the sword down upon the fish man, who instinctively raised his guns to shield himself. The blade hit and slid down the side of the metal weapon, but the fish man was wide open. The moment the sword slid to the side, Arcturus drove a fist into the icthyan's face. The armored figure charged forth, ramming against the fish man like a train, sending him stumbling backwards, before spinning around, picking up a foot and driving it into the icthyan's stomach. The icthyan was launched back against the wall, falling to the ground in a heap.

Arcturus regained composure, returning the sword back to its scabbard. The armored figure turned and looked at Martin, who could only stare back.

"Blimey," Martin muttered. "Thanks for that." He knew death was always a potential danger of the job but that was too close for comfort. "You could work on your timing though." He added.

Arcturus didn't say anything at first, only staring at Martin, or at least staring at his patch on his shoulder.

"Very well," Arcturus replied dismissively. "Next time, I shall wait until after you have been shot to arrive."

Without another word, the armored warrior turned and walked off to the far corner of the tavern, leaving Martin speechless.

"You were joking, right?" He asked with a nervous chuckle. Between the force distorter and Arcturus's practically serious tone, it was next to impossible for him to tell if this person was sarcastic or dead serious. But Arcturus didn't answer. Charles just stared as the armored warrior retreated to the back corner of the room and sat down at the tiny table.

"Hell of a thing, huh?"

Martin jumped in surprise at Ashr suddenly appearing beside him. It was kinda rude and offensive but having cockroaches and centipedes popping out of nowhere was enough to startle a regular person; having a bug man pop up out of nowhere was enough to make Martin jump out of his skin.

The bug man looked at the scene, nodding at the icthyan's unconscious body and the broken table he had been tossed through.

"Eh…sorry about that, mate," Martin stuttered nervously.

"Don't worry about it," Ashr remarked. "It's a pirate haven. This stuff happens all the time. I was more worried about the blood stain you would've left." That comment did not make Martin feel any better. He nearly got turned into paste and, apparently, this was normal?

"So that's the guy who found me?" Martin asked, changing the subject.

"Yup. Arcturus, Knight of the Aurox. Showed up a few days ago. Won't say why or for how long. Found you out in the woods and brought you here."

It was only after Ashr said this that Charles Martin realized.

"Ashr," he said. "You said Arcturus found me out in the middle of the woods. Not in front of the Stargate?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Well, I came through the Stargate," Martin pointed out. "I didn't walk anywhere so how did I get from the gate to the middle of nowhere?"

Ashr just shrugged it off. Didn't affect him so he didn't care but Martin could not help but linger on the question. How did he get from the gate to the middle of the woods? There were plenty of pirate gangs that would have been more than happy finding an unconscious person in the woods but none of them would drag him away from the gate and leave him. Slavers would take him away. Scavengers would kill him and take his gear. He could vaguely remember sliding in and out consciousness when he first arrived. And he could vaguely remember someone walking up to his unconscious form.

There was only one thing for him to do. Charles went to the back of the room where Arcturus sat, leaning back with feet on the table.

"Hey, thanks again back there," he said friendlily. The armored figured didn't answer right away, simply folding up the paper on the table. Martin didn't get a good look at it, but it looked like a map.

"I understand the Millennium Outlaws are unfamiliar with the workings of this galaxy," Arcturus said, sliding the folded map away. "However, you should take more care when it comes to space pirates."

"Yeah…" Charles said slowly, nervously scratching the back of his head. "I learned that the hard way. Hey, mind if I ask you a question?"

"You wish to know how you ended up in the middle of the forest when you arrived through the valgrind?" Charles nodded his head. Arcturus must've heard his conversation with Ashr. "I do not have the answer. I only know that I found you unconscious in the woods."

Charles wanted to ask more questions. Martin looked at the platter of food Arcturus had at the side of the table. Fresh steamed vegetables, grilled meat, and what looked like mashed potatoes. No, Charles was going to assume it was mashed potatoes. It smelled good and finding out what it actually was would probably murder his appetite.

Charles looked up in surprise when Arcturus took the platter and held it in front of him.

"Go ahead," the armored figure said. Charles looked at the food before looking back up.

"You sure?" he asked. Arcturus didn't answer, simply holding the plate in front of Martin's face. Finally, Martin took the plate, using the fork that was still on the platter.

"I understand you are currently in need of food and a place to stay," Arcturus stated. "I would be willing to help you if you do a few favors for me in return."

Martin looked up from his food when he heard this.

"Oh, so that's why you saved me," Charles remarked sarcastically. "You just wanted to ask me for help." Charles couldn't see Arcturus's expression through the helmet so he couldn't tell what the armored figure was feeling. But, he would swear he could feel himself receiving an unamused stare through the visor.

"No," Arcturus finally said. "I did not expect any returns for aiding you. However, I am in need of assistance that you can provide, and you are in need of food and shelter that I can help you provide. I believe that we are in a position to help each other."

"Whatever happened to being careful around space pirates?" Martin scoffed, taking another bite of food. He paused when Arcturus held out a hand in front of him. It took him a moment, but Charles realized Arcturus was asking for the plate back. Charles leaned away to show he still wanted his food. He didn't really have a choice. He didn't know how long it would be before his friends find him. If he wanted to eat, he was going to have to help.

"Alright, what do you need?" He asked, taking another gulp.

"Simple information-gathering missions," Arcturus explained, opening the map on the table. "There are some locations I need checked out. Just report back to me with your findings."

Charles leaned over and looked at the map, eyeing the X's and checkmarks all over it. It was obvious Arcturus was looking for something nearby. Still, as long as it wasn't anything terrible he didn't really care. He didn't mind helping others.

"And in exchange you'll pay for my food and even get me a room?" Charles asked.

"Your quarters will be simple, but it will be better than the tavern," Arcturus said. Martin bobbed his head, weighing his choices.

"I guess we have a deal."

-.-

Corin sat on the bottom step of the stairs to the gate room. It was the quiet season so the only teams out there were the ones looking for Charles. He watched as the gate activated once more. The gate room was filled with a warm blue glow as the shimmering surface filled the ring.

Corin could feel adrenaline shoot through his veins. He stood up, his eyes locked onto the wormhole. He could already see it: the Berserkers coming back with Charles Martin stepping out of the shimmering portal right behind them.

One by one, the members of Berserker came through. Corin kept his eyes locked on the wormhole as Soren finally came through. Corin kept waiting for Charles to come out next but he felt his heart sink as the wormhole closed. Corin looked at Soren, hoping the fierri had something to report but he could only shake his head.

"Nothing?" Corin breathed.

"I am sorry," Soren replied solemnly. "We searched the area but there was nothing; not even a boot print." Corin gave a tired sigh, running his fingers through his hair.

"Alright, thanks" He said. Soren put a firm but reassuring hand on Corin's shoulder as he walked by. Seeing no reason to stay, Corin put his hands into his pockets and wandered off. He looked up at the conference room rail where he spotted Nova also staring at the gate. He got up and quickly jogged up the stairs to the conference room.

"Nothing?" she asked as Corin came up to her. Corin just shook his head. He watched as she clenched her fists in frustration. "Mercer's denied letting me join one of the teams looking."

"You got hit by lightning," Corin pointed out.

"Not hit," Nova corrected.

"Hey, Doctor Osborn still wants you to take at least 24 hours to recuperate," Corin pointed out.

"Fine," Nova sighed, rolling her eyes. She was about to leave but she noticed the worry on Corin's face. They were all worried. Chen just hid his worry with frustration and anger since that was the only thing he knew. Hailey expressed her worry by obsessing herself with fixing the issue. Nova would probably spend time in her wood shop and Corin would probably delve into reading about the history of Earth and the Milky Way. Still, Nova knew she could not show her worry. Once again, her role as leader was putting some annoying burdens on her. She had to be confident. If she was not confident in what was happening, why would her subordinates be?

"I'm going to check on Jennifer and Steven," she said. "See if they have anything."

-.-

Martin felt the gravel crunch underneath his feet as he made his way back to the haven. Several days have passed now. He still had faith his friends were out there somewhere looking for him. He just wished they were hurry up. Still, at least this new lifestyle could sustain him until they do. It wasn't so bad. Every day, he would go check out an area, then come back and tell Arcturus what he sees. It was mostly if there were prints or remains of a basecamp. Sometimes there were. Sometimes there weren't. In exchange, Arcturus bought him food and even got him a bed to sleep in. It was far from luxurious, a simple mattress inside a small cupboard, but it worked.

Night had fallen and he had finished his latest job so it was time for him to report back.

As he made his way back into the tavern he found his 'boss' sitting near the back.

"You have the information?" Arcturus asked, looking at the map.

"Looks like an empty camp near the north side of the lake," Charles explained. "No signs of a struggle. The blokes who lived there probably just packed up and left."

Arcturus leaned forward, taking a pen and putting a checkmark.

"If you don't mind me asking," Charles spoke up. "What are you looking for."

Arcturus didn't answer, only staring at the map to look for where to have Martin investigate next.

Charles had to give a tired sigh. Arcturus treated him well and didn't seem to be planning anything devious. Hell, they got along great. Whenever he wasn't off exploring some empty woods or abandoned town, he was usually chatting with the armored warrior. Arcturus was serious but not stiff, willing to humor him whenever he talked. Still, he wished he wasn't kept in the dark.

He couldn't figure out what Arcturus could possibly want. He was checking areas to see if there used to be people there. He knew Chen would probably be on edge the entire time, but Charles gave Arcturus the benefit of the doubt. The armored warrior was the reason he was alive.

Martin took the coins Acturus gave him and walked to the tavern where Ashr was roaming about.

"The usual?" The barkeep asked in a friendly voice. Martin gave a nod, handing Ashr the coins. The bug man went over behind the counter and went to work.

"You've seem to make yourself a place here." He remarked, giving Charles a platter of grilled vormian. "You intend on just stay under Arcturus's wing?"

"I'm hoping my friends will find me," Martin remarked, taking a seat at the bar and digging in.

"Have you ever considered what you'll do if they don't?"

Charles paused at this. This was the one thing he didn't want to consider this. He didn't know what he'd do if he was stuck here. He did consider asking to hitch a ride on a ship but he didn't know whether or not he could trust any of these pirates or not. Not to mention, he didn't know where to go. He could hijack of a ship, but he didn't know how to fly it. And if he got caught, he'd be facing a mob of angry pirates. Overall, he had no idea what todo.

His train of thought was immediately interrupted as he noticed panicked talking filling the room. Ashr noticed it to, looking around in confusion.

"What's going on?" Martin asked instinctively. He was just kinda speaking his mind since he knew Ashr didn't know either. The bug man rushed up to one of the panicked pirates.

"What's happening?" Ashr asked the panicked sireen.

"Watchtower's reported a ship just exited hyperspace and is headed for the haven." The man babbled.

"Ok, then what's the issue?" Ships came and went from a pirate haven regularly, especially with the Stargate down.

Martin stepped up beside the bug man to listen to the conversation.

"The ship's not slowing down! It's going to crash into the haven!"

Martin and Ashr exchanged shocked glances before rushing for the door. They both rushed out of the tavern and into the haven square. People were all gathering outside, looking up to the night sky to see the ship. Many others were scrambling to their ships to get away.

"There it is!" Someone shouted, pointing at the sky.

Martin looked up into the darkness. It was immediately easy to spot, a bright ball of light in the sky barely above the tree line. It stood out against the darkness like florescent paint against a black background. But it wasn't moving across the sky. It was heading right for them.

Martin was transfixed, unable to move, not sure what to do. He could already feel the rumbling beneath his feet. That ship will crash into the ground and the explosion will incinerate the entire haven. If that ship crashed right on top of them, the only a bomb shelter could protect them. Then, he noticed that the giant fireball was moving. It was moving slowly ,but moving. It was only then Martin realized the ship was not going to crash into the haven, but just beyond it. Its angle made it seem like it was aimed right at the haven, but as it got closer the difference became much more obvious. Sure enough, the ship seemed to pick up speed as it flew over the haven and into the distance. The fireball vanished behind the tree line, but not long after a thunderous rumble shook the ground. Martin could see the glow of the explosion in the distance.

Martin looked around and realized that people were now rushing for the crashed ship. There were never that many people in the haven, perhaps sixty at the most, but about a quarter of them were headed for the crash site.

Charles knew this was probably simply because the scavengers wanted first shares of the ship, but he had to see if there were any survivors.

"Hey!" He called as a human leapt on what looked like a speeder bike. "Mind if I hitch a ride?"

The human gave a nod and Martin hopped on without question.

-.-

"I GOT IT! I GOT IT! I GOT IT!"

Felger was practically running people over as he dashed down the hall. He had to find Jenny and Steven. He practically ran face first into the closed door. He pressed the button the control panel and the doors slid open. Chen and Hailey were already inside working at a computer, Corin and Nova behind them.

"I GOT IT!" he called out shrilly. Everyone in the room looked at him in irritation. They were all working on a way to find and save Martin and he was shrieking like an excited school kid. "I GOT IT!" Felger repeated.

"Then stay away from us before we get it," Chen huffed in annoyance.

"Very funny," Jay chuckled, holding up a small stack of papers in his hand. He was so excited that even Chen's attitude couldn't put him down. Chen gave a sigh, exchanging glances with Jennifer. Working with the former failure was something to get used to.

"Steven," Nova remarked. "I know you and Jenny are helping him, but are you sure we can trust his work?"

"Give him a chance," Hailey said. "What do you have, Felger?"

The man eagerly leapt forward, spreading all the papers he had on the desk. He seemed to have printed every blueprint and diagram they had on the DHD.

"Alright, so we know that when enough energy is directed into the Stargate, a wormhole can jump destinations," Felger recited. "But we also know when a gate is dialed, the address is saved in the DHD."

"Ok…" Chen said, tapping his fingers against the desk impatiently. At the moment Felger was just stating the obvious.

"I think the DHD doesn't just store the addresses last dialed, but information on the wormhole itself!" he exclaimed. "When we rigged the SGC's computers to the gate, we always had equipment monitoring the gate in case something goes wrong. The Millennium computers do the same and so are the ones in Atlantis. If we can analyze the crystals in the DHD, we might be able to figure out where Martin went."

"How would looking at the wormhole data help anything?" Chen asked.

"Hold on, Chen," Hailey interrupted. "He might have a point. There has to be a change to the wormhole for it to jump like that. If we can interpret the data, we might be able to find out where the wormhole jumped to."

"The crystals got zapped by lightning," Steven reminded her. "You really think we can pull any accurate data off it?"

"Don't people in forensics who work with computers pull data off broken computers all the time?" Corin asked.

"Sure…on TV!"

Corin turned red with embarrassment. Maybe he had been spending too much time with Martin. The Australian sniper did love showing him Earth's movies and video games.

"Even if the data is corrupted, if we compare the corrupted data to data from dialing the same planets, we may be able to establish a correlation," Hailey said confidently.

"Jen, there's a problem," Nova pointed out. "The DHD's in bits. If we gate back there, there's no coming back."

"Actually, I've been working on that too," Felger gibbered happily, pulling open another paper. "The Ancients, Asgard, Nox, Wraith, and I'm guessing the Furlings too, they all had remote DHD's. If we can build our own, we can go back there and dial back to Millennium! I already started the prototype, I just need to-"

"That's ok," Chen and Hailey both barked, cutting him off. "We can take it from here."

"Didn't we also just finalize our alliance with the Fierri?" Corin pointed out. "You guys could ask to look at the data from the computers linked to their DHD."

Everyone's faces lit up. With Felger's one suggestion, the impossible now seemed possible.

-.-

The stench of burnt metal filled the air as embers from the wreckage floated into the sky. A mile-long path of destruction traced how the ship crashed, flaming pieces of debris littering the valley carved through the forest, entire trees demolished or uprooted as the ship tore through the underbrush, slamming into the ground and carving a path through the dirt before coming to a halt. The trail of destruction through the ground was like a scar in the planet. Even the forest around the crash was effected, twisted pieces of metal lodged in trees. Some of trees had been completely chopped down by the flying debris. The rest of the debris lay in the trail carved into the ground, remnants of the woods and the ship that tore through it sprinkled across the path.

From the ridge, Martin stared at the remains of the long white ship, an open carcass being picked apart by vultures. He scanned the landscape through his flip scope, watching the pirates move about. He could only imagine what the once beautiful ship looked like as it now lay there for the taking. The ship had hit the planet the perfect speed and the perfect angle that it wasn't engulfed in one giant fireball and incinerated. But now, it was a corpse for the picking. A little over a dozen scavengers were roaming the remains, picking apart the ship for anything useful. It was like a dead animal being picked apart by ants.

"Vultures," Martin growled in disgust as he flipped his scope back down. A ship just crashed and the only thing these people thought about were ways to line their own pockets. He knew that he had his own issues, but it wasn't like he had anything to do until either the gate was fixed or Millennium found him.

Martin made his way down the ridge, careful not to step on any of the flaming debris that littered the ground. Some of the scavengers had brought along carts and were just tossing as much scrap metal as they could into it. Others were picking apart the ship from the inside. Martin could only imagine how valuable the computers or engine components were. But Charles wasn't there to scavenge the ship. He was there to look for survivors.

Entering the ship wasn't hard; there were several very large holes in the hull. Once inside, he found himself in the middle of a dark hallway. Judging by how simple the ship was, it probably wasn't a civilian ship. The floor was like concrete and the halls were rather barren. The ship was built for a purpose and it wasn't to be luxurious. Cargo ship? Where was the cargo hold? It couldn't be a warship; Martin didn't see a single gun on the outside.

Martin was careful not to touch any of the wires, at least he thought they were wires, that hung from the ceiling like vines. The only light came from the moon light that poured through the ripped open hull and maybe a few flickering lights in the walls. Most of the lights through the entire ship were shattered except for a few bulbs struggling to stay lit.

He considered calling for help but the scavengers were already making such a commotion that a survivor would probably hear them first. They were all yelling and running around, fighting over the scraps. Not to mention, he would only end up calling another pirate.

He slowly made his way through the ship, careful not to do anything that could bring the ceiling down on him. His every footstep echoed through the desolate corridors. He took out a flashlight from his vest pocket and shone it down the hall. He peered into each room he passed by. Each one was trashed, a bent mattress and broken table and bed frame, but empty.

And that was the one thing Charles did find rather freaky: the lack of corpses. Even on the bridge, a wide open circular room with computer terminals facing the now shattered window toward the front, there were no remains.

"Watchtower's reported a ship just exited hyperspace and is headed for the haven."

How can a ship exit hyperspace if there was no one at the helm? And if there were people at the helm, where did they go? Even if scavengers looted their bodies they wouldn't bother moving the corpses.

Now that he thought about it, the ship was moving awfully slow for a ship that was supposed to be on an uncontrolled entry. It was as if someone was controlling the ship at the perfect speed and angle so that it would crash into the planet without being destroyed.

He considered trying to see if he could reactivate one of the computers but he knew that he had no idea how to use them. For all he knew he might accidentally activate a self-destruct.

Martin carefully took the ion rifle from his back and cradled it in his arms. He looked out the shattered window toward the front of the ship.

He could spot five scavengers still gathering as much stuff as possible and jamming it into a cart.

Charles gave a sigh and made his way off the bridge. This place was giving him the creeps. He couldn't shake the feeling that something was watching him. He stepped out of the room, ready to continue searching the ship. He had barely taken a few steps when he noticed someone standing out in the hallway. It was one of the scavengers, a human man. The sound of Charles's footsteps caused the bearded man to jump in shock, immediately pointing his plasma caster in Martin's direction.

"Hey now," Charles barked, aiming his ion rifle back. Getting a gun pointed at you was always enough to shoot fear through a person's body. But, staring into the man's eyes, Martin felt even more afraid than before. This scavenger looked scared. He was scared of something in the hallway.

"Run…" the man whimpered. Just as those words left his mouth, something leapt forth from the darkness. Charles jumped back in shock as something latched onto the man's face. It looked like a house centipede, a long segmented worm with dozens of hair-like legs sprouting from its sides, latching onto the man's face. But the thing was massive. Its body alone was the length of the man's face, its spindly legs long enough to cover his cheeks.

Martin instinctively aimed his gun the creature, but froze. Sniper or not, he couldn't shoot the thing off without taking out the scavenger it had latched to. He watched as the man tried to tear the insect off but to no avail. It slowly crawled into the man's mouth, using its legs to hold his jaws open as it crawled in, each spindly leg latching into his cheeks to push itself inside.

"I'm sorry, mate," Martin muttered. He kept his gun trained on the man, not sure what to do. Nova would…probably ask one of them for help deciding what to do. Chen would've shot him without a second thought; put him out of his misery and take out the bug in one go. But Charles couldn't bring himself to do it.

He didn't believe in mercy killing. If there was a snowball's chance in hell to save someone, he would take it.

Martin slowly backed up onto the bridge, quickly tapping the button next to the door, hoping the mechanism still worked.

"C'mon, c'mon, c'mon!" He muttered in frustration. The scavenger jolted up, staring at Martin, his pupils turning into slits. Finally, the door gave a loud hiss as it slid closed, putting a metal barrier between him and the man. Still, it didn't make Charles feel any safer. He backed up, his gun ready to fire if that door blew open. He quickly set his ion rifle to minimum yield. It lacked the destructive power of the higher yields but this close range it wouldn't matter. He wanted the increased rate of fire the lowest yield could provide.

His heart was beating so hard it practically rattled his body with every thump. He knew that that thing was on the other side. At least he thought it was. But after what seemed like hours of silence, nothing happened. He glanced at the control panel next to the door, tempted to open it. He hadn't heard any noises from the other side for a while now.

That's when something else struck him. Where did all the pirates go? Martin had been so enwrapped in what was happening in front of him he didn't even realize the noise of the pirates scavenging the ship had died down until a dead silence filled the air. Even when he glanced out the window, he could see the carts of equipment but the pirates gathering it had vanished.

"Hello!" he shouted out the window, panic beginning to take over. "Anybody there?!"

There were over a dozen pirates here and he didn't hear a single gunshot. That meant that that thing had picked them off one by one without anybody noticing.

He walked over to the window leaned over the control panel between him and the broken glass barrier, trying to see if he could spot anybody. He froze when he felt something beneath his palm. He stepped back, looking at his hand, then at the control panel he put his hand on. The controls were covered in slime. A thick gelatinous mass covered the control panel and the window sill of the broken glass.

Charles groaned in disgust as he wiped his hands on his pants. He glanced at the controls again. Did this slime have anything to do with that bug he saw?

Martin's body went stiff when he heard a familiar scraping sound, the sound of the door to the cockpit opening. he whipped around. The doors were wide open, a darkened hallways before him. He froze as a skittering noise echoed down the hall. Martin aimed his rifle down the corridor, stroking the trigger of his gun, not sure what to expect. He could hear something scuttling from down the hall. Thousands of tiny legs just skittering through the corridors. Something was down there but he couldn't tell what or where. With nothing but moonlight coming through the windows he couldn't see a thing. Then, just as quickly as it started, it stopped. The skittering, scuttling, it all stopped. A dead silence settled in the room like dust on a corpse. But, from the quiet, Martin could hear something: clicking. A low guttural clicking was coming from the hallway. Something was in the darkness watching him. That thing he faced earlier…it was back.

"Ok, bugger this," Martin muttered. He quickly set his ion rifle to medium yield, whipped around, aimed at the sill of the window, and fired. He watched as the blue bolt of energy shot from the barrel of his gun, hitting the wall and detonating, the sheer force of the explosion blowing the entire wall open. Without hesitation, he leapt through the hole.

As he landed on the hull running, he could tell his fears were true. Looking around as he ran across the demolished hull of the ship he examined the landscape around the spacecraft. Everyone had vanished. No trace. No corpses.

Martin shook his head and cleared his mind. He had to focus on getting away. That thing he saw earlier had somehow taken out every pirate here without a trace. He was sure of it.

The speeder bikes were still there. All he had to do was grab one. Martin leapt off the edge and slid down the side of the slanted side of the ship. The moment his feet touched the ground Martin practically flew to the closest speeder.

"Bugger, bugger, bugger," He muttered in panic as he leapt on. "How the hell do I start this thing?" Martin was twisting every lever and nob and key. He could hear rapid footsteps running across the hull of the ship, a scraping noise as it slid down the side, and the patter as it sprinted across the dirt. Something was running right at him. His hands were flying across the controls, trying to figure out how to start the damned bike.

Too late. It was on top of him.

"Piss off!" He yelled in panic, pointing his ion rifle in the direction of the noise and firing. The bolt of energy barely traveled a few feet before meeting its target and exploding. He had completely forgotten that the rifle was still on medium yield. The force of the blast launched him from the bike. He hit the ground and whipped around, ready to blow away any monster that stood before him. But, a firm hand grasped the barrel of his gun and aimed it at the sky.

"That's quite enough."

Martin recognized that voice. He looked up and spotted an armored figure standing in front of him.

"Arcturus?" He breathed in shock. Was this person the reason all the pirates were missing? Even if that was the case, Martin couldn't help but feel safe around the heavily armored and shielded warrior was comforting, even if they were only carrying a sword. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"The haven received your distress call." The armored figure explained, seizing Martin by the wrist and pulling him to his feet.

"Distress call?" Martin repeated.

"We received a panicked call for help from one of the scavengers," Arcturus explained, drawing their sword from its scabbard. "I chose to investigate and took off on foot."

"Wait, wait, wait…" Martin interrupted. "You ran here?"

"It was a lengthy run," Arcturus said dismissively. "However, when I arrived it appeared everyone had gone missing. I proceeded to explore the ship but upon seeing me, you fled."

"You were the one clicking in the hallway?"

Arcturus gave Martin a confused look.

"I heard no clicking. I only heard an explosion from down the hall so I rushed to see what was happening." Martin instinctively glanced at the hole in the bridge. So, Arcturus wasn't the one making that sound. Then what was? His thoughts were interrupted by his armored friend. "What is happening?"

Martin could only shake his head in response. "Couldn't answer if I wanted. Everyone just vanished."

Suddenly, a scream echoed from the ship. Martin whipped around, his rifle at the ready. He still could not get the guttural clicks out of his head. He had come face to face with death in the past but for some reason this thing terrified him. But he lowered his weapon has he saw where the sound came from: a human scavenger came limping from behind the hull of the ship. The rather muscular bald man was covered in sweat, his eyes bloodshot and full of panic, his jacket and pants covered in what looked like black blood. Martin kept his rifle trained on the man, half expecting something to seize his legs and drag him off.

The man took a step forward before collapsing to the ground in a heap.

"Clearly not everyone," Arcturus remarked.

-.-

Getting the lone human body back to the haven was easy enough. Arcturus hotwired the speeder. They put the body on a piece of scrap metal, retrained it to the metal plate, and attached the plate to the back of the speeder with a chord. After that, they both got on the speeder and sped off, dragging their load like a sled.

Martin glanced back at the ship, half expecting something to be standing there watching them. There was nothing there. He remembered arriving there with almost two dozen scavengers. Now only two were left. The rest: gone without a trace. He looked back forward as Arcturus piloted the speeder bike back to the haven.

Martin noticed there were even fewer pirates when they got back. Guess he shouldn't be surprised. Some of the other pirates probably left while they were gone and now another several dozen of them had gone missing. Still, a good number of them had gathered out into the center of the town when they saw Arcturus bringing back an unconscious man tied to a metal slab.

"Get this man to Urag," Arcturus ordered. Without question, several people quickly detached the cord and began dragging it to one of the huts, leaving the others to stare in confusion. They all wanted answers.

-.-

As Martin would find out, Urag was the haven's local doctor. Martin would spend the next several minutes standing in the observation window, watching the human doctor scan the unconscious scavenger.

The makeshift clinic was a giant circular room. The observation room was more of a hallway that circled the outermost edge of the building with the infirmary being in the center. There were a small handful of doors to other rooms in the building. Martin stood in that hallway, looking as Urag worked on the patient inside.

"You're not making any sense." The icthyan said. Martin growled in annoyance. It was the same damn fish man that tried to shoot him. Now the guy was pestering him over what happened. Fish-head and two other pirates decided to follow them in to find out what happened.

"I'm making plenty of sense you bloody idiot," Charles barked back. "We got to the ship and everyone suddenly vanished."

The icthyan leaned over him threateningly but a quick glance from Arcturus had him back off.

"Look, eel-face," Martin started saying.

"Lok Dod!" The icthyan barked.

"Whatever."

"Enough!" Arcturus interrupted, approaching the two. "It is unlikely that the human could have eliminated all the scavengers there unscathed. And it is even less likely he could have done is and disposed of all the corpses so quickly."

Dod grumbled in irritation but had to silently admit Arcturus was right. With nothing more to say he went back to the window to check on Urag.

"He's coming out," Dod announced as Urag wiped his hands on his apron on his way to the door. Everyone immediately gathered around the door as the doctor came out.

"So?" Martin asked when Urag came out. Charles was surprised by Urag's angry glare in response. He had no idea that helping the Ror'char would create such a response from so many.

"How's he doing?" Lok Dod asked. Urag took of his glasses and wiped them against his apron.

"I can't tell." He replied. "He's fine for the most part but his body seems to be reacting as if he is sick. Though…" Urag held out his hand, revealing a small holographic generator in his palm. There was a click and a blue hologram formed above the hand-held device: a hologram of what looked like a long spindly centipede.

"The hell is that?" Martin breathed, staring at the hologram of the segmented worm, dozens of spindly hair-like legs sticking out of all sides. "I saw that thing crawl into his mouth."

"Whatever it is, it's wrapped around his spine," Urag explained. "It appears to be some sort of parasite."

Martin kept his eyes locked on the hologram. There was something eerily familiar about it. He knew for a fact that he has never seen this creature before but there was something about it that seemed…off.

"So what now?" Lok Dod asked.

"I'll keep an eye on him for the time being," Urag replied, turning off the hologram and putting the projector back in his apron. "For now, I'd like you all to clear out of my house. Especially you, sell out."

"Mate..." Martin said, hoping to fix relations with the pirates.

"Out!" Urag barked. Martin felt his face sag. They may be pirates but he still didn't like making enemies if he could avoid it. He was about to speak but he felt a firm hand on his shoulder.

"Let it go," Arcturus replied. Martin watched as the armored figure went to the door and held it open, expecting him to just come along. After a moment, Charles finally relented and followed the alien warrior out of the building.

Lok Dod just walked out without saying a word and Urag eagerly closed and locked the door behind all of them.

"Bloody wanker," Martin barked at the door. "Seriously, you can't do anything when it comes to these guys."

"Space pirates may not align with any nation but they consider themselves to be an entity of their own," Arcturus explained, looking up at the night sky. Martin looked at Arcturus, the only person who has been the least bit helpful so far. And he still wanted to say thank you for saving for saving his life. But, there were some questions he had first.

"Can you fill me in?" Martin asked. "What's with everyone?"

"From what I was told, Millennium Outlaws were asking about hunting down the Crimson Slavers," Arcturus explained. "Some local pirates helped them. The Crimson Slavers are then wiped out by the Ror'char."

"Yeah, and some pirates helped us," Martin pointed out. "Why are they getting so pissy about it now?"

"Hostilities between pirate factions is a normal thing but it's another thing selling out another group of pirates to the Ror'char, a nation largely considered to be pirate hunters. Many fear you will now betray them to the Ror'char."

"It wasn't like that in the slightest," Martin argued.

"Your relation with the pirates of this galaxy is not my concern," Arcturus interrupted. Martin looked at the alien warrior. He could not help but feel venom in that voice.

"For a space pirate, you certainly seem to harbor a lot of hatred for them."

"The pirates are detestable outlaws and criminals. Murderers, thieves, and kidnappers who managed to make a living performing their crimes."

"From what I was told, the space pirates are just a bunch of random people who don't align with any one nation. They aren't all bad apples."

Even though Martin couldn't see Arcturus's eyes, he would swear that he was being glared at.

"Some pirate gangs have an initiation where they would charge a single shot in a five shot weapon," Arcturus explained. "They would randomize the shot and hand it to the applicant, who would then pull the trigger while aiming it at themselves."

"We have something called Russian roulette on our planet that's very similar," Martin pointed out.

"Then you know how dangerous the game is and its reputation, despite how unlikely death is. Space pirates are very much the same. While the worst ones are the minority there are enough. And I wasn't always a pirate."

"I heard," Martin said, recalling what Lok Dod said back in the tavern. "A Knight of Aurox or something like that."

"I was not just a knight," Arcturus explained, turning to face Martin. "I was the leader of Order of Aurox, Pariah of the Nox."

"Wait a minute," Charles stuttered, unable to believe his ears. "Nox?"

"Yes. While Nox believed in absolute peace, Aurox felt that peace was impossible to obtain without the use of violence. It was Aurox's belief that those who had power had to use their power to protect the weak and innocent to achieve peace. We found their scriptures. The Order of Aurox followed their teachings. We wield weapons and armor that had been left behind."

"Weapons and armor?" Martin repeated. "So that sword and that shield of yours belong to Aurox."

"Yes," Arcturus said with a nod. "Admittedly, they lack the power they once did." Arcturus pulled out the ancient sword. "This technology also relied on the supernatural power of the Aurox wielder, something we could only use technology to cheaply replicate."

Martin glanced at the ion rifle slung over his shoulder. Guess it wasn't only the Ror'char that made cheap copies of Alliance technology. Though, technically the Aurox were never part of the Alliance.

"So what happened?" Martin finally asked. Arcturus didn't answer, only looking up at the sky.

-.-

Urag gave a sigh and leaned back in his chair. He brought the bowl in his hands up to his lips and drank down the soup in it. No matter how much he ate he couldn't stop thinking about that Millennium traitor. It's slavers today but tomorrow it's a new pirate gang.

Part of him could not help but wonder if that sellout was responsible for the disappearances of all the scavengers. Still, how could one man wipe out so many scavengers? And what did he do to this one? What was the point of the parasite?

Urag was about to take another sip when something caught his attention. There was a knock as the door opened. Urag looked at the door in shock. He was supposed to be alone but there was someone at the door.

"What the?" Urag stuttered, putting his bowl onto the table in front of him. "How'd you get here?!" He felt his jaw drop as his eyes fell upon the scavenger he had as his patient. The man was somehow up and about. He stuttered and groaned, leaning against the door for support.

Urag was about to help the man but he could tell something was wrong. The man suddenly began trembling and thrashing, stumbling onto the table. Urag finally rushed to the man's side. It looked like he was having a seizure or something. Urag had to get him away from all objects, make sure he didn't hit his head on anything. But has he began to put the man on the floor, he felt something dripping onto his hand. He looked at it, his eyes widening when he realized it was a black slime. He threw himself backwards as the scavenger threw his head back and began screaming. A black slime began oozing from his skin, covering every inch of his body. Soon it engulfed him, turning into a cocoon of black slime that finally stopped moving, the man's screaming subsiding inside.

Urag could not stop shaking. What the hell just happened? What did he witness? He slowly inched toward the sac, which still look eerily human, like a human trapped in a thick black membrane.

He gently kicked the black sac, expecting it to suddenly explode out and engulf him. But nothing happened. He gave it a harder kick, his confidence growing. He was about to kick it again when it began moving.

Urag yelled in shock and jumped to his feet. The membrane had begun stretching, ripping, tearing. Something was tearing its way out.

-.-

A single terrified scream echoed through the entire tiny town, practically rattling all the buildings.

Charles whipped around. That scream came from the building.

"What the hell was that?!" he blurted out. He and Arcturus rushed back to the building, but he ran face first into the door. He stumbled backwards, clinging onto his nose.

"Smeggin' idiot locked the door on us," Charles muttered angrily. He reached back to grab his ion rifle but Arcturus stepped in front of him.

"Stand back," the armored figure ordered, sword in hand.

"You don't intend on hacking the door down?" Martin asked skeptically. "Considering that door's metal, unless that's secretly a lightsaber, you ain't going through it.

Though he couldn't see it, Martin could tell Arcturus was smiling from under that helmet.

"Stand back," the knight said, holding the sword to the side. Martin looked at it skeptically but he felt his jaw drop when the sword seemed to come to life. He watched as the sword began to transform. The pieces rearranged themselves, parts sliding, extending, and retracting until Arcturus had a rifle in hand.

Martin could hardly believe his eyes. Had he not seen it as a sword he would never have known it used to be one. Yet, he could tell which part of the sword had become what, the blade becoming the barrel, the handle becoming the grip, part of the guard turning into the stock and an edge of the blade becoming the iron sights.

Arcturus didn't even bother aiming the weapon, firing it from the hip right at the door knob. There was a brief but brilliant flash of orange energy blasted through the knob and into the ground, the lock disintegrating.

The armored figure kicked the door open and burst into the building, leaving Martin staring in shock. This galaxy was weird.

"Charles Martin, come!" Arcturus called out from inside. Martin immediately rushed in but it wasn't the same house he remembered. The place had been trashed. The biggest thing that caught his attention was the observation room window was shattered.

"Over here!" Arcturus called from one of the side rooms. Martin rushed in and immediately saw the issue. This was probably some sort of dining room but the table and chairs had been overturned, the food and platters scattered about. But it wasn't the food that caught Martin's attention but the massive splatter of black liquid against the wall. It was as if someone had slathered the wall in motor oil. But it didn't smell like motor oil. It smelled like decay.

His eyes widened in horror. It felt as if all the life had been sucked out of him. He kept telling himself that he was mistaken. They were still new in this galaxy. So, it could be something else.

But, there was only one creature in this galaxy that he could think of that secreted black liquid like that.

"Arcturus," Martin breathed. "I think we're in trouble."

"We are," the armored figure said darkly. "That's harvester blood."

Another scream suddenly rocked the building. It was close without a doubt.

"The next room!" Arcturus called out, immediately dashing for the source of the sound.

"Wait!" Martin called, not nearly as fast. But the armored figure was already in the next room. Martin got up and quickly followed suit. They couldn't just run through the building; they had to tactically clear it out or they could accidentally walk into an ambush. Still, he couldn't just stand back and do nothing. Ion rifle in hand, he rushed after his friend. He ran into the next room, immediately spotting Arcturus.

"Will you stop doing that?" he barked, dashing into the room. "Seriously, we need to-"

Martin never go to finish his sentence. As he stepped into the room, he turned to see what Arcturus was staring at. And what he saw chilled his soul.

Body-possessing snakes, life-sucking vampires, he knew the universe had terrifying things but he never imagined this: a freakish beast that was human in torso but in shape only. Four spindly legs held the thing up, the insect legs ending in sharp points like knives. He couldn't tell if it was covered in an insect's carapace or a reptile's scales. It looked like it was a carapace made of scales. A pair of beady red eyes glared at the two from its snake-like head. Even the humanoid torso was twisted and distorted, the limbs longer and thinner than they should've been.

"Arcturus," Martin breathed. "Is that…"

"It is," Arcturus answered. "It's a harvester."

The harvester reared back, a nightmarish roar emanating from its jaws. But it didn't just sound like a roar. It sounded like screams, hundreds of screams behind that monstrous roar.

"I knew it," Arcturus breathed, staring the nightmarish thing. "So there is harvester presence here."

"What?!" Martin barked at the knight. But he didn't get answer.

Arcturus took aim and fired but the harvester immediately reared up and leapt onto the walls of the building. Bolts of pure energy tore through the building like a blow torch through butter. The harvester creature dodged the beams but they still demolished the wall behind it, the metal wall turning into molten scrap.

"Hold on!" Martin called out but Arcturus wasn't listening. The knight kept firing, tearing through the walls of the building until the wall completely fell apart, creating a hole outside for confused pirates to stare in.

"You're not hitting it, just hold on!" Martin called.

The harvester leapt onto the ceiling, its claws legs digging into the surface. But Arcturus had already predicted this and aimed the rifle at that precise location.

The harvester gave a screech of pain as the bolt tore through the left side of its body, instantly disintegrating it into dust.

"You hit it!" Charles gasped. The limp corpse of the creature fell off the ceiling and to the ground in a heap, at least the remaining half of the corpse did. It fell to the floor, black blood seeping from the body.

Charles set his ion rifle to medium yield and took aim at the broken corpse. Martin would've used max yield but at such close range he would be incinerated too. The medium yield would have to do. He's had two run ins with the harvesters already and he was not taking any chances. He was going to use his rifle to completely wipe out any trace of this creature.

"Stop!"

Martin's eyes widened as Arcturus leapt forward and shoved the gun barrel out of the way. The infirmary room exploded in a shower of glass and twisted metal as the stray bolt flew out of the room and hit the observation room wall. He looked at the armored figure in shock.

"What the hell are you doing?!"

"I need it alive!"

Martin was about to protest but a sickening squelching caught both their attention. They looked at the corpse in shock. It was moving again, thrashing about like it was having a fit. They watched tendrils began sprouting from the open wounds, the fleshy vines growing and shaping itself into its missing body. Once it had its shape right, the tendrils bloated and expanded, fusing together and mutated until it had actually become the body. More tendrils grew from its body, taking the shape of its limbs. Once again, when the tendrils had taken the proper shape, it fused and became the missing limbs. Martin watched wide-eyed as the thing got back to its feet, completely regenerated. It was as if it didn't get hit at all. But it hadn't finished changing.

The creature threw its head back, tusks growing from the base of its lower jaw. No. Those weren't tusks. Those were jaws. A second set of mandibles grew out and encased the bottom of the monster's lower jaw. Not only that, it was becoming even more nightmarish than before, spiny hairs coming out from between some of the scales. Its face was becoming even more rigid and bony.

Martin felt his blood run cold as he watched the creature leap at him.

"Look out!" Arcturus barked, shoving him out of the way, swinging the rifle. That's when he realized it wasn't a rifle. It had become a sword again, transforming from one weapon to the other in a fraction of a second, the massive blade cutting through the monster's chest. Oily black blood sprinkled from the wound, splattering against the floor like a fine mist.

Arcturus stood up, sword back into a rifle and at the ready.

"Arcturus, your face!" Martin called out. Arcturus didn't realize it, not at first at least, but a few droplets of blood had landed on the knight's helmet. Tiny string-like tendrils began sprouting from the black stain, sliding across the surface like a fast-growing fungus. It wasn't until the strings began sliding across the visor did Arcturus realize what was happening.

The armored warrior reached up and tore the helmet off, tossing aside the metal scrap as it was engulfed in the fleshy tendrils.

Still, that didn't stop Arcturus, brushing aside the blonde hair in her face. Most of the long blonde hair was tied in a braided bun at the back but there was still a fair amount of descent length bangs hanging at the front and side. She held her sword at the ready and launched herself at the nightmarish creature.

She must have cut one of its venom sacs. Either that or it decided to inject venom into its own bloodstream. If that's the case, she would have to be careful where she cut. It would've been easier to use the rifle to incinerate it but she needed the thing alive. She knew it had incredible regenerative abilities, which meant she could rough it up a bit, but she did not want to accidentally take it too far.

Charles fired at the creature. The thing leapt past the bolt but it didn't matter. The moment the energy bolt hit the ground, the floor exploded into a geyser of shredded metal. Shrapnel flew in all directions like lethal confetti. A concussive blast may not be very large but the floor had turned it into a mini grenade, the shrapnel embedding itself into the creature as it began scampering across the ceiling.

"Bugger!" He cried out as it leapt at him. At the last moment, he threw himself through the window into the observation room. He felt the glass hit his shoulder and shatter against his body. So close to the impact, the sound of shattering glass was deafening as he hit the floor on the other side, the glass crunching under his body weight. He rolled onto his back, aiming his rifle at the window he just jumped through. He had just took aim when another bang cracked the air. The harvester roared in pain as something hit it in the spine, the flesh almost instantly freezing solid and shattering like glass. He immediately spotted what it was.

Through the hole in the wall, Charles could see a figure standing in the distance, a fish man aiming at them with his revolver. It was Lok Dod. He began blasting the creature from outside, every shot instantly freezing its flesh and shattering it, wounds the size of apples forming in the creature. After five shots, Lok Dod stopped to look at the aftermath but the thing was still standing. An orange beam of energy suddenly carved through the creature's back. Arcturus had fired again before charging forward.

Arcturus swung her sword but it cut nothing but air. The creature had leapt away again, clinging to the top of the room with its four legs.

Charles quickly set the rifle to minimum yield and fired at the creature, pellets of energy hitting the ceiling. But one hit the creature in the leg, instantly cooking it. It may have lost one leg but it bent forward, its claws digging into the ceiling, crawling across the ceiling like an insect with five of its limbs, its dead leg hanging limply from its body. He vaulted over the window sill to get a better angle.

Another bang split the air, Lok Dod firing one more shot as it scampered across the ceiling. Black blood spewed from its leg as it hit.

Martin gave a yell of shock as more boltss of energy shot past, tearing through the ceiling, the metal beams falling to the floor.

"Watch it!" Martin called out in panic as the ceiling collapsed right in front of him. He glanced at the door just in time to watch the thing scamper out. He turned to scold Arcturus again but the knight had already charged out the door.

Martin could only growl in frustration and rush after her. The guy was hellbent on destroying this thing no matter what. No, not destroy. Arcturus said she wanted it alive. But why?

He rushed outside and immediately spotted Arcturus. But he couldn't spot the creature anywhere. It had escaped.

"God, buggerin', damn it!" Martin growled when he realized it had vanished. There were barely a few dozen pirates left in the entire haven which meant it could have escaped anywhere without being seen. It had gotten away.

At the very least they were safe now. That was too close for comfort.

He looked at Arcturus, panting, trying to catch his breath. That's when he realized. Snow white skin. Long blonde hair, the back of which was tied in a braided bun. Long bangs hanging from the front and side of the face.

"Wait a minute..." He stuttered. "You're a chick."

 _ **A/N: Hey everyone. Sorry for the wait. I've actually been sitting on this chapter for a while but I never got the chance to revise it. Hope by schedule hasn't affected my writing/revising. I would**_ ** _like to thank_ _taleanaomi for his help writing this story. Something I decided to try my hand at was the_** _ **cliche of the mysterious stranger turning out to be a female. From when she was introduced to when her helmet came off, I never referred to Sam as a he or she (and if I missed one, please tell me so I can edit it out).**_


	2. Chapter 2

As Martin stood there, about a dozen pirates coming out of the buildings to see what was going on, a strange sense of nervous awkwardness fell upon him. Half of them knew he was a Millennium Outlaw and half the people that did know hated him for it. Now it looked like he just blew up a building. Worse, it looked like he blew up the haven's local doctor. He could already hear the small crowd whispering amongst each other.

Lok Dod stepped out from the crowd, his revolver trained on him and Arcturus.

"You know, I had half a mind leaving that thing to finish you two off," Dod said, fingering the trigger as if he was now considering to do the job the Harvester wasn't able to.

"Take it easy," Charles barked, holding his hand out in front of him to show he was not a threat.

Arcturus was not the least bit nervous, on the other hand.

"I would not recommend that," she said, taking a step forward, the sword gleaming in the moonlight. "If you recall, your weapon's ammunition cannot penetrate my shield." There was a gentle clatter as she pointed her sword at the icthyan. "Now is not a good time to lose one's head."

"That was before," Lok Dod barked. "I was using plasma rounds. I've switched them out for feedback rounds, designed specifically to deal with shielded enemies. Upon impact with any shield, it will send a charge right back into the fuel cell. The more energy used by the shield, the worse the feedback is. Can even do a number to the wearer."

"My hardened shield does not function like a regular defense shield. Do you really think it will perform as intended?"

The icthyan just shrugged with a smile.

"Guess there's only one way to find out."

Martin could cut the tension in the air with his knife. Arcturus was waiting for the perfect opportunity to charge in and cut the icthyan down. Lok Dod was waiting for the opportunity to blow her away. Charles kept thinking about Arcturus's defense shield. All the other personal shields he's seen before would form a shimmering bubble of energy the moment it was hit by something. Arcturus's shield only formed a few panels of energy to block whatever was coming. The only reason he could think it would do that would be to use less energy. He couldn't really be sure if those feedback rounds would work. Still, he couldn't have the two of them fight.

"Alright, break it up!" he called out, leaping between the two. "What do you want, Dod?"

"I want answers," Lok Dod barked. "What the hell was that? I think you know."

Martin eased up a bit at this response. At least he wasn't hellbent on killing them.

"Hey, I want answers too," Charles said. "How 'bout we put our guns down and we can talk this out?" Lok Dod didn't move at first, but after a moment he lowered his gun slightly. He was still waiting for Arcturus to do the same. "Gun swords too," Charles insisted. Arcturus gave Martin an uncertain glance before finally lowering her weapon, Lok Dod doing the same.

"Come on," she said flatly, marching off. Martin could only gape as she left. Just a moment ago they were pointing guns at each other, now she was just walking off.

"Wait up!" he called, finally chasing after her with Lok Dod behind him. Arcturus was marching right for the tavern. Charles couldn't imagine why. She stormed through the door, past the dining area, and headed down the hall to the left of the front desk.

As if the tavern wasn't barren last time he was here, it was empty now. Even Ashr wasn't there. It was just the three of them with Arcturus leading them to the guest room.

"In here," Arcturus said, walking up to one of the doors. She took out a key form her uniform and unlocked the door. Martin was about to walk in but Dod stopped in front of the door.

"Just hold on a second," he barked. "I thought you were going to tell us what's going on here." His irritated glare was met by Arcturus's impatient one. She needed him to do what she said. But after a moment, she glanced at the ground as she rethought the situation. After giving a sigh, she finally spoke.

"I swear upon my honor that I will reveal everything," Arcturus said solemnly. "I need you to trust me."

Lok Dod maintained his glare, his hand drifting over his holstered revolver. He wondered if he fired his gun at point blank, could he bypass the personal shield entirely? He could risk his life and give it a shot. But, he still wanted to know what was happening and this woman was his only source of information. After an irritated groan, he finally stepped in with Martin, Arcturus closing the door behind them.

Taking a look at the room they stepped in, Martin figured this must've been where she was staying. But, it didn't look like she made herself at home in the slightest. Hell, aside from a single crate under the bed beneath the window at the far end of the room, it didn't look like she had any personal belongings at all.

The alcove that would serve as the coat rack was empty, and the desk was barren.

Charles had just stepped into the center of the room when something else caught his attention.

"Bugger me. What is that smell?!"

Arcturus walked past Martin and opened the window to let some fresh air in. She knew the smell better than anyone else. After quickly pressing a button in her gauntlet Martin watched as Arcturus's shield formed around her, a shimmering wall of energy encasing her body. This wasn't a regular personal shield though. It wasn't a single bubble of energy but a barrier made of hundreds of hexagonal plates of energy. And just as quickly as it formed, it flickered and vanished.

"It's a shame, really," she said. "Our scholars speculate that during the time of the Sillerens, they were able to maintain use of technology like their shields indefinitely using their powers. Unfortunately, our technology pales in comparison. We are only able to keep the shield active for short periods of time."

"So, what, was that the smell of your fuel cell overheating or something?" Martin remarked.

"That is exactly what it is."

She walked away, reaching into a small compartment in the chest section of her armor and took out a small crystal. The glass-like gem was steaming from the sheer heat it was emanating. Arcturus gently placed the crystal into a glass of water that was sitting on the bed stand. Immediately, the water sizzled as it took in the heated crystal.

"So right now your shield is down," Lok Dod interpreted. Arcturus glanced back at him, unfazed by this remark. Even with her shield down, she was clearly confident that she could take him on.

"Do you intend on shooting me then?" she asked. She didn't say it but Martin could tell by the tone of her voice, she was daring him to attack. Martin wasn't much of a face reader but that didn't stop him from trying to read Arcturus's face in the meantime. Her face was stiff as stone, her only expression being a solemn stare as if to say 'attack me and see what happens'.

"Just tell us what's going on here," Lok Dod finally huffed impatiently. Arcturus gave a satisfied nod.

"I will start at the beginning then," she said with a tired sigh. "My full name is Samanya Arcturus. I apologize for the secrecy but everything I have done up to this point is because I need your help," she said to Martin.

"You know you could've just asked," Charles pointed out. "We've been working together for a while now. You could've just told me."

"Considering the nature of what I need your help for, I was doubtful you would agree," she explained. "Would either of you like a seat?" she asked, gesturing toward the chair. Martin glanced at her before glancing at Dod. The fish man seemed very content with just leaning against the door.

"I guess it wouldn't hurt," Martin muttered as he took a seat in the chair next to the desk though Samanya stayed standing. He glanced out the open window. The stench of the burning metal was beginning to clear and he could hear the clattering of scavengers picking through the demolished house like maggots at a corpse.

"As I mentioned before, I am former leader of the Order of Aurox," Arcturus said.

"Earlier, you called Aurox 'The Pariah of the Nox'," Martin remarked. "What does that mean?" Samanya paused for a moment. It was clear she was hesitant to explain it. After pacing around the room for a moment, she finally answered.

"What do you know about the Nox?" Samanya asked, walking over and closing the window.

Martin thought back to what he was told. Though Arcturus didn't know it, he had once encountered the pacifistic race. They had explained to him their history and the reason for their devotion to peace.

"From what I was told, there used to be a warrior race called the Sillerens. They fought each other to the point of extinction. But one of them, named Nox, went on a pilgrimage. When he came back, he wanted to spread peace. Those who followed him called themselves 'Nox' to honor him. The Sillerens wiped themselves out and the Nox survived."

"What you weren't told was that Nox didn't make the pilgrimage alone. He was accompanied by his brother, Aurox. They both saw and experienced the same things. But Aurox felt that violence would still be required to protect and maintain peace. He and his followers used their powers to shield the Nox until the Sillerens had wiped themselves to extinction."

"I can't imagine that would go well," Charles remarked. He remembered the mission report. When SG-1 encountered the Nox, they detested violence even if it was used to protect them. But, the Goa'uld were nothing compared to the might of the Nox. The Sillerens, on the other hand, were on par with them.

"Right after the Great War was over, the Aurox were exiled and the Nox erased all reference to him and his followers from their scriptures. But the Aurox left their own scriptures behind for us to follow." Samanya walked to the center of the room, taking out her sword and holding it out as if to show Martin. "It was the duty of our order to restore order in this galaxy."

"And they've done a fine job of that," Lok Dod snarked. "The entire galaxy's been in a state of chaos for as long as anyone can remember. Every nation is at war is somebody and space pirates still infest the place."

"News flash, mate," Martin barked. "You're also a space pirate." This guy really couldn't make up his mind. First he gets mad about them working with the Ror'char to fight slavers since slavers were still space pirates and now he's spitting on the name like it was a disease.

"I'm referring to the slavers, raiders, head hunters, gangs, and guilds," Lok Dod clarified. "They're half the reason this galaxy is the way it is. No nation dares to expand out of fear of their cities being raided. When they're not looting isolated colonies, raiders and slavers are especially adept at showing up out of nowhere around a planet, bombing a random city, and hyperspace jumping out of there before the planet's military can retaliate, and that's assuming they aren't using the stargate.

"Uh...the Ror'char are seen as pirate hunters. I'm pretty sure the space pirates piss their pants at the idea of fighting them."

"Out of all the nations in this galaxy, the Ror'char may have had the most success fighting the space pirates but they are not immune to the chaos," Samanya said. "And even if a nation did somehow manage to shield themselves from pirate raids, none have been able to fend off the Harvesters. Not even the Order."

Martin could not help but feel a chill run down his spine. So many planets and so many people harvested and no one knew why or what happens to them. Anywhere from hundreds to billions of people vanishing from a planet without a trace all at once.

"Is that what happened?" he asked. Samanya gave a single solemn nod.

"All I will say is that my men tricked me so I would not be present when it happened. That is why I am here. Charles Martin, you are going to help me wipe out the Harvesters into extinction."

Charles stared at Arcturus in shock. His jaw dropped at this suggestion. He could hear Lok Dod snickering when he heard this.

"You need me to help you wipe out the harvesters?" Charles repeated. "Sorry, but you're batshit insane if you think I can somehow pull that off."

"I concur," Lok Dod said. "Forget his aid; how do you intend on wiping the entire harvester race?"

"As former head of the Order, I had access to all intel gathered on the Harvesters," she explained. "All across the galaxy, there are scientists who dedicate themselves to studying the Harvesters and their origins to try to find a way to counter them. Strangely, the leading scientists always vanish with little to no trace. According to the intel gathered, several of them were last seen on this planet. I will put an end to what is happening here. We must first capture that monster we saw earlier but I will need help doing so. It may be our only hope of finding more about the harvesters."

"How do you know that?" Lok Dod asked.

"I spoke to the assistant of one of the scientist that disappeared. That harvester we saw is a mutation of the human we found, his body used as a vessel to morph into something more suited for its task. If we manage to capture it and find a way to revert it to its human form, the host should have access to some of the creature's memories and thoughts."

Hearing this, Martin immediately thought about McFree. Isaac McFree was once implanted with a harvester parasite that caused him to mutate between human and harvester. Any time McFree was human, he would talk about hearing whispers in the back of his mind. Now that Sam mentioned this, the hospital bed the human used to be was empty. And when they found the man, he was exactly how McFree was when he reverted to his human form.

"Are you with me?" Arcturus asked.

Samanya stared at the human and icthyan. The fact that she was even going with this plan was killing her. Everything about it betrayed everything she believed. Still, she had to do it for her men, her people.

"Alright," Martin said. Samanya looked at him in surprise.

"You are ok with this, risking your life for someone you hardly know and owe nothing to?" she asked. "Did you not have your own priorities?" She was stunned that he would agree to this so soon. She, a stranger, was asking him to help her in an endeavor most would consider tantamount to suicide and without any reward.

"Well yeah, but I'm not going anywhere anytime soon. Besides, you shouldn't need a reason to help people." Samanya's face wasn't completely emotionless. Even as they talked it still showed some of what she felt: anger, determination, surprise. But, even when it showed these emotions her face remained stiff. But when he said this, for the first time, he watched as her expression soften.

"I cannot tell you how much I appreciate this," she said, looking down to the side. She looked up again when she saw Martin stand up from his chair and hold his hand out. After a moment, she took it and gave a single firm shake.

"What about you, fish face?" Martin barked. Lok Dod could tell the human was intentionally calling him fish to piss him off.

"If I really wanted to die, I'd eat the barrel of my gun," he replied.

"Is that the reason you were perturbed when I mentioned how the scientists vanished on this planet?" Samanya asked. Martin didn't even notice any expression change in fish face before. But when Arcturus mentioned this, his discomfort was obvious. He tried to stay calm and pretend he wasn't affected. Finally, he gave an exasperated sigh.

"I think it's easier if I showed you," he replied. He gestured toward the door. Charles and Sam exchanged glances at Lok Dod's sudden change in attitude. His snide attitude was replaced by what seemed like genuine worry. And, they needed someplace to start other than chasing a random monster.

"Alright," Samanya said. "We're on board."

-.-

It's been a while since Chen was on the Fierri homeworld. The moment he stepped through the gate, it was obvious they moved it to a more secure location. It looks like they had it in some bunker judging from the cement room and row of fierri vanguards in front of them.

"Stand down, everyone!" Crux ordered when he saw Chen, Felger, and Hailey walk through the gate. Hailey looked around curiously while Felger was practically squeaking with excitement. "It's good to see you guys again. Welcome to the Valgrind Command Center. This is where we run our own valgrind operations. I'm sorry, Stargate operations."

"Call it whatever you want," Chen said, still looking around as the fierri troops filed out. "You got our transmission earlier?"

"And the data package that came with it," Crux added. "Our scientists have already gotten started in gathering the data from our computers." Hailey and Chen both glanced at Felger. This was his idea.

"What're you waiting for?" Hailey asked with a nudge. Felger smiled giddily. It was on. A guard lead the three of them out of the room and to the labs. But, Crux stayed behind to watch them leave. The valgrind chamber fell silent as only he and one other guard remained.

"Sir," the guard said. "I heard a few things about the data they sent over."

"I know," Crux answered, his eyes narrowing. "I think they sent over more than they intended. Not only did we get the files on what they know about the DHD, there were some very detailed documents about things they've done in the Pegasus galaxy."

"According to the files, the creatures feed off the life force of sentient species. Some would consider that reason enough to go to war."

"Perhaps. But I'm not too pleased with the methods." Crux could feel the guard staring at him in confusion. "Our forefathers used alien technology they procured through the valgrind to massacre all foreign races under the notion ours was superior. If we gave them the technology to simply genetically change all of them to become the same as ours, do you think they would use it?"

"Some would consider such a conversion to be better than mass murder," the guard pointed out.

"Perhaps, but at its core, are you not trying eliminate a race because you feel it is impure?" The guard fell silent, understanding what Crux was trying to say. "Tell the security office to keep a close eye on the cameras." The guard gave a nod and walked off to carry out his orders.

-.-

"I hope it is not your intent to lead us into a trap," Arcturus barked. They had been walking through the woods for nearly an hour by this point. Even the crashed ship was not this far. Under the canopy of the trees, not even moonlight made it to the ground. Martin had to shine his light right in front of him to make sure he didn't trip over anything. Lok Dod had a small flashlight in hand to do the same. Samanya, on the other hand, seemed to be able see through the dark. Her eye sight wasn't perfect; her head was pointed straight down practically the entire time.

"Don't worry," Lok Dod replied, stepping through the underbrush and into the open. "We're here." Arcturus and Martin looked past him but could only see darkness. The trees and underbrush had parted to what looked like a cliff overlooking a clearing but the trees surrounding that clearing had grown so massive that it formed a canopy over the entire thing. The plants had formed a dome that completely blocked out moonlight. If there was something in front of them, there was no way to see it. Martin could shine his flashlights on a few oddly shaped objects in front of him but he couldn't tell what he was looking at. It looked like there were cube-shaped rocks stacked all over the place but he couldn't tell why.

"Watch your eyes," the fish man said.

Martin shined his torch on Lok Dod, watching as the fish man took out his revolver. Dod opened the boxlock action revolver, removing one of the blue-tipped bullets in the cylinder and replacing it with one with a red tip and black stripes. He spun the cylinder so that the new bullet would be fired next before closing the gun once more. He aimed the gun toward the sky and fired.

A single bang echoed through the plant chamber as a brilliant blue fire ball was shot into the sky, hitting the top of the canopy near the top and getting stuck in the wood. The round must've been some sort of flare, the flame filling the entire chamber with light.

Charles felt his jaw drop. Even Arcturus was stunned. Those weren't cube rocks. Those were buildings. Before him was an ancient and abandoned town, concrete buildings overgrown by vines and vegetation, bricks paths and stairs weaving between structures, stone bridges connecting the towers. The shadows had covered it like an ocean of darkness but the light had pulled back the black curtains, awakening the city again.

The massive trees growing around the outpost completely covered the outpost like a cave chamber made of trees.

"Bugger me. What is this place?" Charles gawked as Lok Dod opened the gun and put the original bullet back in its place.

"I'm gonna trust the two of you," Dod said. "As much as I think I should kill the Millennium turncoat, it looks like our goals are aligned."

"You are here for the harvesters as well?" Samanya asked.

"I'm an enforcer for the Bukahn Family," Lok Dod explained as he proceeded across the stone bridge before them, his two new allies in tow. "Their business is arms dealing but the boss's little girl decided to take a more honest line of work. She was a historian. But not long ago, she went missing."

"Let me guess," Charles interrupted. "She was studying the harvesters." To Martin's shock, Dod didn't even seem pissed at him anymore. He seemed genuinely worried about what was happening.

"No," the fish man said. "She was studying the Alliance of Four Great Races. Unlike the other historians, who wanted to start at the most recent and work backwards, she wanted to start at the beginning. She wanted to know how they were formed, what circumstances brought them together. All I know is that her work brought her here."

"She was the one who discovered this place?" Arcturus asked, her eyes scanning the entire landscape. "What is this place?"

"According her journal, the research station of a now extinct race that existed after the Alliance but before any of ours. Unlike the members of the Alliance such as the Asgard and Ancients, these people used stone based technology instead of crystal. They too were seeking the truth about the start of the Alliance of Four Great Races."

"So, you think the Harvesters are involved in the woman's disappearance?" Martin concluded.

"Well, originally I thought you were somehow linked to her disappearance," Lok replied. "But, her and an entire research station vanish on this planet while looking into the beginning of the Alliance. And, according to Arcturus, several scientists investigating the Harvesters vanish here too."

"Many scientists research the Harvesters," Arcturus explained. "Most give up, saying they are making no progress. But the ones that claim they are tend to vanish…many of them on this planet."

"It's not just scientists," Charles added. "You guys know about the Andaran homeworld?"

"From what I heard, the entire continent containing the Stargate was harvested," Samanya recited.

"Well, I was there not long ago. Apparently, the government was pretty damn dedicated to researching the Harvesters too. Then suddenly they up and vanish."

"There is something I wish to add," Arcturus said. "A few days before the Order was harvested, our historians were looking into the origins of the Aurox. In particular, they wanted to know why the Aurox did not join the Alliance."

"Probably because of a difference in philosophies," Dod suggested.

"No. The Ancients, the Asgard, and the Furlings all had militaries. It wouldn't make sense that the Aurox would be turned away because they believed in the use of violence."

"What does that have to do with the Harvesters?" Lok Dod asked impatiently.

"It's because they were harvested because they were looking into the Alliance as well," Maritn concluded.

They all paused in their tracks, taking in the new information. Lok Dod reached into his vest and took out a small journal, ribbons of a multitude of colors peeking out the pages. He looked at the book sadly.

"This was her journal," he said. "She decided to detail what she discovered about the start of the Alliance."

Martin stared at the tiny book, knowing the secret to the beginning of the Alliance was in there. But he also knew why Lok Dod suddenly looked so nervous. Everyone thus far vanished after discovering too much about the Harvesters. And suddenly the people researching the beginning of the Alliance also vanish.

"You think she was taken because of what is in that journal," he concluded, the same journal Lok Dod already read.

"I think so," Dod said. "The weird part is, I didn't read anything that the Harvesters might want people to not know."

Give it to me," Arcturus said, holding out her hand. Lok Dod and Charles looked at her as if she was insane. Without question, Dod handed her the journal.

"Hey, you want to kill yourself, be my guest," he grunted.

"You can't be serious," Martin said as Samanya quickly flipped through the journal as if to gauge how long it was. She read a few lines, quickly marking where the pertinent entries began. All she cared about were the Harvesters. The history of the individual races in the Alliance was of zero value to her.

"If the Harvesters fear their secret being discovered, then learning it will bring them right to me," she explained. "That creature we saw earlier is still out there but we are still searching for it. This way, it will come right to me."

"Well you'll have plenty of time to read it," Dod replied. "We're in the dead of night so I think we should all take a break. We can continue our business in the morning."

"Agreed," Samanya replied. "You two may sleep. I shall take first watch." Lok Dod and Martin looked at her in protest.

"What I meant was we go back to the haven to sleep," he said. "Nights are pretty long on this planet compared to others."

"It is more efficient to sleep here," Arcturus pointed out. "You've been here before. Do you think there is anything of value in this outpost?"

Martin instinctively glanced behind him at the buildings. He did want to one day take the time to explore this place, this city of interlinked metal structures with interwinding stairs and bridges. But, they had their priorities.

"No," Lok Dod answered. "There's nothing here."

"Then it's settled. We shall rest here for the night and return to the haven in the morning."

Martin watched as Arcturus proceeded to take a seat on the bridge, opening the journal to read. He glanced at Lok Dod, who had begun walking the other direction toward the nearest building.

"Working with a goody two shoes knight and a Millennium traitor," the icthyan muttered. "There must be something wrong with me."

-.-

Hands. That was all Charles Martin felt. Hands. Hundreds of hands and spindly legs were grabbing him, pulling him off the ground. He struggled. He thrashed. Finally, they let go and he fell to the ground. He looked up, hoping to see what had grabbed him. Instead, in the sky, he saw a massive silhouette. Bigger than a skyscraper. Bigger than a starship. Bigger than the planet. It looked down at him, holding the planet in its claw. And it wasn't alone. Two other massive figures looked down upon him.

Martin's eyes fluttered open. It was another dream…

Martin had fallen asleep on what looked like an old countertop. But, his mind kept racing over the events of the past two days. He was still stuck on this planet but he had something he had to do before he left. As much as he disliked Lok Dod, he understood why the fish man hated him. Then there was the Harvester monster.

The SGC's encountered monstrous aliens in the past but nothing like this. They understood the Quinterans better than they understood the Harvesters. But, as far as Martin was concerned, it wasn't anything but a wild animal, no different than the list of monsters and aliens he's seen on TV. Then there was Arcturus. She hellbent on eliminating the Harvesters, willing to practically sacrifice herself as long as she got closer to wiping out the Harvesters.

No longer able to take it, he finally got off the counter. The glowing flare Dod shot had begun to dim but he could still see. He carefully made his way outside the building, his ion rifle slung from his shoulder. He could see Arcturus was still stationed outside, still leaned up against the side of the bridge. She looked up at him, pausing from the journal she was reading.

"I thought you would be resting," she said.

"Eh, thought I'd keep you company," he said, plopping down beside her. He looked at the journal she held, an armored finger from her gauntlet still held between the pages to mark where she left off. Even now, not knowing what was in there, he was terrified of that book yet she wanted to read it.

"You are really willing to go that far?" Martin asked, still staring at the journal. "You know if you read this there's a good chance you'll vanish just like everyone else."

"If the Harvesters want me to vanish, they need to come find me first," Samanya said firmly.

"Yeah but if they were that easy to stop, don't you think someone would've done it by now?" Charles pointed out. "Chances are you'll just vanish like everyone before."

"That is a risk I am willing to take," she responded without hesitation. Martin stared at her, unable to believe his ears. He was a soldier. He knew the concept of sacrificing one's self but this was just pointless suicide to him.

"I owe it to them," Samanya explained. Samanya's face was stiff but Martin could still see the hints of regret in her eyes. And even if he couldn't see it, he could hear it in her voice.

"I get you're trying to avenge your men but this isn't the way. You're not gonna avenge anyone at this rate; you're just gonna get yourself killed."

"As I said before, I am willing to take that chance. They are gone because of me and my failings as a leader. The least I can do is pay for my sins."

"They died so you could live. Killing yourself would be an insult to their sacrifice."

Arcturus didn't respond to this statement. She just stared at the journal in her hand.

"I have no other choice," she said. "I was born into my role. My responsibilities were inherited and my duties are expected."

"Expected by who? They're gone."

"Which is exactly why I must fulfill them: in order to honor their memory. I was born into the role as leader of the Order so it is my duty. I have no choice."

"You do have a choice," Martin argued. "You're defined by your actions, not what you're born into."

Samanya glanced at Martin. She didn't say it but he could tell she was asking how he would know anything about that. He gave a sigh. It wasn't the best example but it was the best he could come up with.

"Back where I came from I grew up in a rich family," he explained. "There's no sugar coating it. If I really wanted I didn't need to work a day in my life. My father was the owner of a decent sized business. My mother, a doctor."

"Sounds like an easy life style," Samanya remarked. Martin couldn't tell if this was her usual sarcasm, just an observation, or whether she was envious.

"I don't deny it had its benefits, but it wasn't as easy as most people thought," Charles replied. "One thing my parents taught me was that money was power and that power is a gift that should be used to help others. It was the duty of anyone who was capable to help those who weren't. That's why I'm here. My sister went on to become a nurse. I joined the Australian Royal Air Force."

"If you truly had such an easy life style, why would you choose such a profession?" she asked.

"Simple: I wanted to help people. You define yourself by how you live, not what type of life you are born into."

"So, you suggest I abandon my responsibilities simply because of what I want?"

"I'm not saying that either. You were the leader. You should fulfill your duties because it was the right thing to do, not because you were just born into it. And right now you should stop throwing your life away just to fill an obligation that doesn't make sense."

Sam looked ahead, thinking about his words. Her hand slowly drifted to her sword on her back. She had always lived by the position she was born in. She never once considered being something else. The moment she was born she had inherited the role of leader. The moment her leadership lead to the death of her people, she vowed to seek revenge. For the first time, she wondered if she should try a different path.

-.-

"Amazing!" Chen heard Felger squeal from behind him. Steven's fingers paused on the keys for a moment. He had been hearing Jay Felger squealing excitement at practically every piece of technology he found in the Fierri's Valgrind Command Center. While he had gotten a brief taste of their technology when they went on a joint mission with the Fierri, that was just a basecamp. That was nothing compared to what this base had.

Chen and Hailey were at the computer, double checking Felger's calculations. He had worked his magic making the blueprints. Now it was time for them to work their magic to make sure he didn't Felger it up. That left Jay wandering the lab, looking at all the cool equipment.

"Dannick says fierri have been around as long as humans on Earth have," Hailey said, describing what she heard from her team's resident archaeologist.

"Don't encourage him," Chen groaned, already imagining all the fawning Felger would do.

"That is so cool!" Felger jittered excitedly. "Even the technology they had before discovering the Stargate was at least a hundred years ahead of us. Their technology is advancing twice as fast as on Earth!"

Chen ignored Felger's comments and continued scanning the code. This simple hand-held device, which looked like a smart phone, was supposed to be able to dial the Stargate remotely. The program needed to work or they might get sent to the wrong planet, a space gate, or worse.

"You seem a lot more excited than the last time we worked with the Fierri," Chen commented. If he had to be absolutely honest with himself, he actually wasn't annoyed by Felger's antics. While he definitely preferred a less-talkative Felger, the overly eager one didn't bother him either. He just didn't want people to think he was getting soft on the former failure.

"Of course I'm excited! These guys are so cool! They're like space dwarves."

Chen finally paused from his work.

"I'm just gonna start keeping a list of everything these guys are called," he muttered. Felger looked at Chen in confusion.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, when we first met 'em, Charles called them Sorarans."

"Sontarans," Hailey corrected.

"Whatever."

Hailey smiled at Chen's gruff attitude. When they first started, Chen was just the local crank. Only Kara Osborn seemed to get along with him. Now, Wolf Pack, the Dusk Riders, and Felger have all been able to get along with him. She and Felger have been working with him a lot more too.

"I call them thumb-heads," Hailey remarked to Felger. The two held back a stifled laugh. Chen didn't want to show it but he was holding in a chuckle too.

"They look like thumbs!" Hailey laughed. "They look like thumbs with faces on them!"

Finally, Chen's self-control vanished. He put his head on the keyboard, snickering. Now that he took a moment to think about it, the Fierri's head did look like thumbs with faces on them.

His face was still red with laughter when a beep caught his attention. He looked up at the computer screen excitedly.

"That's it…" Chen said in a monotone voice. They had been working on this for a while now. And now, it looked like they had it. "That's it!"

Hailey rushed to Chen's side, looking at the results.

"There were a few mistakes we had to fix," Hailey muttered. "But the simulations work!"

They both looked at Felger to see what his reaction was. But Jay Felger could only stare on in shock. It wasn't long ago that they moved Felger from the design department to the blueprint department. He would draw up designs and turn them into engineers to be built. While the system itself produced results, this was the first time Felger was ever told that his plans would work.

"Well…shouldn't we test it first," he said stiffly.

"Oh, yes we will," Chen chuckled.

-.-

Martin didn't want to wake up. It had been such a nice nap. He was about to sit up but he felt something on his shoulder. Looking over, he realized Samanya had fallen asleep leaning on him.

"So much for keeping watch," he muttered to himself. He gently shrugged his shoulder, hoping it would wake her up, but to no avail.

"Hey," he hissed. "Hey, Sam." He reached over and poked her cheek. That did it. The next thing Charles knew, he was staring down the barrel of a gun.

"Is there something wrong?" Acrturus asked. Charles stared at the barrel. He didn't expect her gauntlets to have guns on them.

"Nothing," he said. Satisfied with that answer, Arcturus lowered her gun. She looked around, stiffening when she saw her surroundings. "Something's wrong." She bolted to her feet, drawing her sword and immediately transforming it into a rifle.

"What's up?" he asked, pulling out his ion rifle.

"It should be light out by now." Arcturus rose to her feet, still looking around. "We should retrieve Lok Dod and return to the haven." She rushed into the ruins before Martin could even get to his feet. He stumbled after her, glancing at the top of the dome. The flare had died so the only light that came in was from the outside. It wasn't moonlight through. It was as if the entire sky had been covered by enormous black clouds, muted sunlight struggling to peep through the holes.

He quickly followed Arcturus into the building where they had left Lok Dod, his hand tight around his revolver.

"Hey," Martin hissed, nudging the amphibian with his boot. The moment he did that, he found himself staring down the barrel of Lok Dod's gun. Dod had bolted upright and pointed it at Martin.

"There a problem?" Dod asked.

"Do you people always point guns at the first thing that wakes you up?"

Dod lowered his weapon and slowly rose to his feet, glancing at the two people standing beside the counter he had used for his bed.

"Why is it so dark?" he asked, glancing out the window.

"There must be a storm," Arcturus said.

"Don't hear any rain," Charles pointed out. He looked outside again. He just couldn't get a glimpse at the sky. Not with all the trees in the way.

"If it's possible, we should still head back," Samanya said, walking off. "We still need to deal with the creature we encountered yesterday." Martin and the fish-man exchanged unsure glances. Even now, she was still hellbent on capturing a harvester.

The walk back to town was shorter than Charles remembered. Being able to see where he was going helped. Though there was some light, the entire land was still blanketed in shadow. Thick black clouds filled the sky. It was as if a thunderstorm was upon them but there was no storm.

As if things weren't creepy enough, as they approached the haven, it was apparent something was wrong.

"Hold up," Martin said, holding his hand out to signal to Lok Dod and Arcturus to stop. They could just barely see the buildings in the distance, but he knew something was up.

"What is it?" Arcturus asked. Martin flipped up the scope on his rifle and looked through it. He didn't tell Lok Dod but the scope was actually a gift from the Ror'char for helping them catch the slavers. Looking through it, he could scan the haven.

"Where is everyone?" he muttered, looking up from his rifle. "The haven…it's empty…" The haven was never densely populated but now it was dead. The streets were empty. Martin could see through the ones with the blinds drawn. But all the rooms were empty. It was as if everyone had left.

Charles was so busy looking down his scope he jumped when he felt something tap his shoulder.

"Guys…" Lok Dod muttered, looking into the distance. "What is that?!"

Charles rolled onto his side to see just what had the fish man so shocked. And when he saw it, he felt his jaw drop.

"Bugger me…what is that?"

He couldn't see it clearly at first. It looked just a massive black mass. But as his eyes soon adjusted to the darkness, Martin could see a massive column of black twig-like growths. Looking at them from a distance, he couldn't tell if they looked like black brambles or absurdly long insect legs. It seemed they were both. He looked through his scope at the black column, hoping to get a better look. The ion rifle was a marksman rifle so its scope wasn't as good as a sniper rifle but he could still see the countless interwoven segmented branches, oily webs stretched between each blackened limb, glowing embers gently floating off of it. Looking up from his scope, the three of them watched as the black column slowly rose into the sky, vanishing amongst the dark clouds.

"You know," Lok Dod said. "All of a sudden, I don't want to go back to the haven."

-.-

If things didn't seem fishy before, they certainly did as they entered the completely desolate haven. Not a single light was on and not a single soul was outside.

"I don't like this," Lok Dod said, taking out his revolver. He rolled up the sleeve on his left arm and glanced at the gauntlet. "I like this even less."

Arcturus and Martin looked at the fish man in confusion. None of them liked this but Lok Dod seemed more disturbed than normal.

"What is it?" Arcturus asked.

"My gun's a gift given to me by my employers," Lok Dod explained. "It's a projectile weapon and I have to individually reload every shot. But I can choose what shots I fire. When we were fighting the harvester yesterday, the last bullet I put into it was a tracking bullet."

"Let me guess," Martin said. "Your tracker says the thing's close to us."

Lok Dod pointed to the tavern in the distance. It sent chills down Charles's spine to know how close that creature was. The thought of the thing was terrifying enough. But now he learned that it was within walking distance of him.

"Let's go," Arcturus said, immediately marching in the direction of the tavern. Lok Dod twirled his revolver before following. The two barely took a few steps before Martin rushed up and grabbed them by the shoulders.

"Hold up!" he hissed. "Don't either of you watch movies? You put a tracker in big, bloody monster, you follow tracker to some secluded location, then you find out it clawed out the tracker and made a trap with it!"

"I actually do know what the turncoat is saying," Lok Dod said. "The Harvesters are clearly intelligent. There's a good chance that that signal is a trap."

"Then what do we do?" Arcturus asked impatiently. "Even if that is a trap, then the only way to draw it out is to spring it."

"Are you volunteering?" Martin asked. The question was supposed to be facetious. He thought Arcturus would back down the moment she heard it. But instead…

"Yes, I am."

Arcturus marched off in the direction of the tavern, leaving Lok Dod and a gaping Martin behind.

"Smooth," Dod said, quickly rushing to catch up to Arcturus. Charles, meanwhile, was scanning the town with his eyes, trying to find a perfect sniping spot. It was easy to see. A market had a small wall that gave him perfect sight of the largest windows into the tavern and it was a good distance away. Charles quickly went over and set up shop. He set his ion rifle to minimum yield and flipped up his scope. He was just getting comfortable, even pulling up a chair so he could sit, when he spotted Lok Dod jogging up to him.

"I gave Arcturus a communicator," the fish man said, flashing a small black radio in his hand. "You're a sniper? If things go wrong, I'll join her. You will have to provide fire support from a distance."

"That's was the plan," Martin said dismissively. This was what he was good at. When he joined the military, stories of combat in urban areas and civilians killed in the crossfire terrified him. He did not want to cause any innocents to lose their lives. It was this fear that drove him to be as accurate as he could with a weapon. He pushed himself to make the shots no one else could. He could now support his teammates at any range, hitting targets at distances where they can't even see who they're fighting. It was also good for situations like this. He had his friends' backs.

Peering through his scope, he could see Arcturus pull out her sword, pressing herself against the wall as she snuck up to the door.

"Do you see anything?" Arcturus asked through the communicator as Martin peered through the window. Martin shook his head at Dod.

"Nothing," the fish man said back. If the harvester was in there, it was in a blind spot. If only Arcturus could draw it out, he could start pelting it with the ion rifle's bolts.

He glanced back at Arcturus. The woman opened the door and finally entered. Knowing his role was now more crucial than ever, Martin returned to scanning the building. He still couldn't see anything. He began scanning the area around the building too. He was still sure that it was just a giant trap set up by the harvester.

"Charles, Dod," Arcturus said through the communicator. "I believe you two should come see this."

"Uh…You sure?" Charles asked. They were supposed to keep watch to ambush the ambushers. It kinda breaks the point if you just walk out into the open.

"I'm sure," Arcturus said.

Charles exchanged glances with Lok Dod. Finally, they both gave a sigh before finally leaving the sniping post. Even though Arcturus seemed confident that they could come down, Martin was still on edge. He continued scanning the eerie and abandoned buildings, unable to shake the feeling something was watching them.

Lok Dod got the door while he watched their back. He still felt this entire thing was a trap. But, as they stepped inside, he saw why Arcturus wanted them to come. At the center of the bar, laying against a table, covered in sweat, was a human. But it wasn't any human. It was the human that transformed into the harvester.

"Help me…" he panted. The man was completely naked short of a table cloth tied around his waist. His face was red and his eyes were bloodshot. It was obvious the harvester transformation was taking a toll on him.

Lok Dod stared at the human for a moment before taking aim.

"No!" Martin barked, shoving his gun aside. The icthyan looked at Martin in irritated shock.

"That's the man who becomes the harvester!" Lok Dod argued.

"He's not a harvester now! We can find a way to help him!"

Before either of them could say another word, they realized Acturus had placed her sword against Dod's neck.

"You are not killing him," she said coldly. Martin looked at Sam in shock. Even if she was desperate to catch a harvester, she wouldn't kill her teammate. Would she? Looking at her, it was chilling to see how cold those green eyes had become.

"Alright, he gets the point!" Martin said. Arcturus lowered her sword at Martin's reassurance. "So what do we do now?"

The blonde knelt by the sick man, looking at his panicked eyes.

"What do you know?" she asked. Martin stared at Samanya in shock. She wasn't exactly the warmest person but the her voice sounded colder and more distant than usual. She wanted something and she was willing to go to any distance to get it.

"What makes you think he knows anything?" Lok Dod asked, clearly irritated that he had been threatened just a few moments ago.

"Whenever a person is converted into a harvester, they can hear the voices of other harvesters on some sort of psychic network," Arcturus said. "They use some sort of hive-mind to communicate and he is part of the network."

"They are telepathic," a voice said. Everyone turned to face the voice, weapons at the ready. They watched as a familiar bug-man stepped out into the light, no longer wearing his vest but now wearing a long black coat. "Their telepathy is how they deal with anyone with any sort of mind power. But it isn't a hive-mind."

Martin couldn't believe his eyes. He had a hunch as to what was going on, but he hoped he was wrong.

"Ashr?" he stuttered.

"Hello, Charles," the bug man greeted. "If I had to be honest, I'm glad you're still here."

"Ashr…where is everyone?"

Arcturus and Lok Dod picked up on what Martin was insinuating, both of them aiming their weapons at the barkeep.

"Gone," Ashr said simply. "It was becoming dangerous for you to be here so I had a little help."

Martin could not get rid of the chills going down his spine.

"What are you talking about?" he asked cautiously. He stared at the bug-man's face. "Ashr…what have you done?"

"I just want to talk," Ashr said, holding his hands in front of him to show he's unarmed. Martin kept turning between the infested human and Ashr, not sure who to train his weapon on. Lok Dod had his revolver aimed at the human while Arcturus had her rifle aimed at Ashr.

"It was becoming dangerous for you to be here," Ashr explained. "And I needed to talk to you." Ashr walked over to the kitchen counter and began pouring himself a drink.

"Ashr," Martin said cautiously. "Where is everyone?" Ashr didn't respond at first, taking the time to finish his drink.

"Gone," Ashr finally said, putting the glass back on the counter. "It was becoming dangerous for you to be here and I needed to talk to you in private."

"Ok…" Martin muttered. "Well, I'm here. What is it you want to talk about?"

"Charles, stop talking," Samanya said. Martin looked at Arcturus in surprise at her sudden statement. "Tell me, Ashr. You said the other pirates are gone. What happened to them?" Ashr didn't answer. He simply maintained his stare at the trio.

"That's what I thought," Arcturus remarked in response to Ashr's silence. Martin looked at Samanya in confusion. And she could see it. "You had them harvested, didn't you?" she asked Ashr.

Charles felt his blood freeze.

Harvested

He knew what this meant. Every soul in the town had been taken by the Harvesters for god knows what.

"Harvested?" Lok Dod repeated. "What are you talking about?"

"You don't get it?" Arcturus asked, transforming her sword into a rifle. "The human on the ground was infested by a harvester parasite. So are you, aren't you? You're a harvester."

"Nope," Ashr laughed, holding out his hands. "I'm a narkoss. I'm just here to talk on behalf of some very big guys upstairs"

"But you aren't denying anything, mate," Martin observed. They were all thinking it but none of them said it, dreading the possibility. "You're not a harvester. You're just working for them!"

Ashr simply smiled at this accusation.

"So close and yet so far from the truth…" he said with a smile. "I don't work for the Harvesters. I'm a Prophet. I work _with_ them."

Martin glanced back at the man huddled on the ground. He was no stranger to danger and confronting enemies. But, there was something different about this. He couldn't get his mind off of his recent nightmares. He kept thinking about the strange mass of black brambles floating in the sky he had seen earlier.

"You looked unnerved, Flight Lieutenant Charles Martin," Ashr remarked, dragging Martin's mind back to reality. It took a moment, but Martin suddenly realized something.

"Wait…what did you call me?" he stuttered. It was one thing for Ashr to call him Lieutenant Martin. But it was another thing for Ashr to call him Flight Lieutenant. When introducing himself, he never bothered mentioning the 'Flight' in his title and yet Ashr somehow knew it.

"That's who you are," Ashr said. "Flight Lieutenant Charles James Martin of the Royal Australian Air Force of the Tau'ri, Fifth Race as declared by the Asgard. Another Fifth Race…the first was bad enough."

Arcturus and Lok Dod stared at Martin, shocked by what they just heard.

"How do you know all that?" Charles asked waveringly. Ashr didn't answer. The bug simply smiled.

"Tell me, what is one thing that all four races in the Alliance say and believe?" Ashr paused to see if any of them could answer. When there was nothing but silence, the bug man spoke up. "The universe is infinite. Just as existence has no border, the mountain has no peak. There is always someone above you. There are forces in this universe that even the Alliance of Four Great Races could not comprehend. Getting Alliance technology just upgraded you from bacteria to insect in their eyes."

"You're telling me the Harvesters are better than the Alliance?" Lok Dod scoffed.

"No, no, no," Ashr chuckled. "Sometimes the easiest way to study insects is to have another insect tell you what you want to know. The prophets, the Harvesters, we are merely tools. The entire Harvester race was created for the sole purpose of serving our masters."

"Masters?" Lok Dod repeated.

"As you can imagine, the title 'Harvesters' was given to the enigmatic race responsible for mass disappearances across the galaxy. Few have ever witnessed the harvests and lived to tell of it but for those who did, these were the creatures they saw. Little did they know, these creatures were just tools to something even greater. They are no more the true face of our masters any more than a nail is a human or icthyan. But in the end, we are both just tools for something greater."

"They already tried and failed to capture one of us," Martin pointed out. "If they're so powerful, why're they having so much trouble?"

"No more trouble than you would have cleaning a kitchen sink," Ashr said in a bored tone. "You just don't get it. Our masters aren't some power-hungry empire that seeks dominance. They want what any species wants: to survive. They just have to harvest us in order to do it."

"I don't see how just because they think they're better than us, they have the right to take our lives!"

"Any more than the insects you crush or rodents you poison can understand why you take theirs. Just because you cannot comprehend something that much greater does not mean you can judge them like you do of other races. They harvest out of necessity, not greed. The countless trillions of people taken were taken because they had to be."

"You still haven't said for what!" Martin barked impatiently. "What could be so important that they have to regularly take lives?!"

"Don't act all high and mighty on taking lives. Whenever people build a house, they don't stop to think about the plants they uproot or the animals they displace. You don't think about the living beings your food used to be, the animals you kill when you eat meat. When you go clearing our house of pests, you don't think about the lives you take in the process. It's just a fact, no sentient creature can live without taking other lives in the process. It just so happens that the lives you take are so beneath you, you don't really care. That doesn't make you evil; it's just how the universe works. Or did it never occur to you that might crush a few bugs when you go about mowing the lawn?"

"We're not bugs!" Lok Dod snapped.

"Maybe not to each other," Ashr said slyly. "But the same thing that makes insects so insignificant that you can crush them without a second thought is the same thing that makes our masters not think twice about you when they come to harvest. You think that because of your Stargates and hyperdrives, and empires, that you are great. You may be vast in your narrow facet, but in proportion to the universe you are nothing but insects, your empires being nothing but a blade of grass in someone's back yard. Technology has made us arrogant; the Harvesters are merely here to humble."

 _"Technology has made us arrogant. Knowledge has made us ignorant. We think that because of our technology, our energy weapons, our ships, our stargates we're the dominant force in the galaxy. We made it this far because nature let us. No matter how advanced we become, no matter how far we travel, nature will always be the dominant force in the universe. The Harvesters are just her way of kicking us in the ass as a reminder."_

Martin remembered McFree saying that when he had been infested by a Harvester parasite.

A loud scream snapped the three of them out of their trance, reminding them that there was still the harvester host in the room. The man writhed in agony as his body was once again enveloped by the black membrane, the screams subsiding inside.

"Kinda hard to believe your masters are these great benevolent beings when they do stuff like that," Charles said.

"I never called them benevolent," Ashr corrected. "They don't care about the races beneath them. They just do what they need to do to survive."

Lok Dod gave a skeptical nod at this statement as the membrane finally ruptured. A familiar nightmarish creature rose from the sack, black liquid spewing onto the floor. Four spindly insectoid legs held up the humanoid torso, its snake-like head hissing at them, the extra set of mandibles extending from the side of its lower jaw clicking furiously. A long whip-like tail that ended in a sharpened point uncurled across the floor.

"Don't fight it," Ashr said to the three of them. "I came here to talk because I was hoping you could understand. All they're trying to do is survive. You can't fault them for that."

"So the only reason you came to talk is to tell us just to lay down and die," Lok Dod scoffed, his revolver aimed at the newly morphed Harvester.

"The reason I came to talk is to beg of you to stop your searches," Ashr explained in a calm tone, the monster standing beside him baring its fangs. "Two of you are searching for answers on the Harvesters. And one of you is searching for something that will put you on the same path. Normally, the Harvesters would be sent to harvest everyone doing that. But my masters agreed letting me talk to you."

"What would you have us do?" Arcturus asked stiffly.

"I'm just asking you to stop looking into the Harvesters. They don't really care what the lower races do. Just stay out of their business. You're meddling with forces that you can't even fathom." Ashr put up his hands and shook his head. "I'm just asking you to do yourselves a favor and stop digging before the big guys send someone to make you stop. If you don't, I can't help you. Now what's your answer?"

Martin fell silent. He could not help but think about the Goa'uld and the Wraith, two races that viewed humans as insects out of arrogance. He could not help but wonder if these 'masters' were the same, more aliens who thought they were better than everyone else. But another part of him could not help but wonder if what Ashr said was true. He kept thinking about his nightmares, the giant figures he kept seeing. Those couldn't possibly be the 'masters'. Could they?

Martin practically jumped out of his skin at the sound of weapons fire. He looked at Arcturus, who had open fired. A maelstrom of energy bolts tore through the Harvester monsters, shredding it like paper. After about a second of weapons fire, the remains of the creature collapsed to the floor. Arcturus had decided her answer.

Ashr sighed in disappointment as what was left of the smoldering carcass continued to sizzle.

"You've brought this on yourself," he said.

"If you really do serve the Harvesters, maybe you can answer my questions," Arcturus said darkly.

"You mean about your tireless pursuit of the truth about the Harvesters?" Ashr asked in a mocking tone. "A journey you are so determined to see through that you would even take advantage of your own allies?" Lok Dod and Martin looked at Arcturus in confusion. Charles couldn't tell if that was discomfort or anger she was feeling. It looked like a bit of both. "Why don't you tell him? The reason you took such interest in Charles Martin wasn't out of the kindness of your heart. You were using him as bait. The last prophet you ran into told you about the Harvester's interest in the Millennium Outlaws. When you met him, you were hoping it would draw us out."

Charles stared at her in shock. He probably would've agreed to helping but he would've preferred to have been told. But it wasn't that which stung. He trusted Arcturus, given her his trust for helping him. But it turns out she was using him and was just as ready to discard him.

"Congratulate yourself, Samanya Arcturus, Knight of the Aurox! Your plan worked! So many years of betraying every code and rule you swore to follow and it's all finally paid off!"

"ENOUGH!" Arcturus roared, firing burst of energy bolts past Ashr's head. "Mock the deaths of my friends again, and my next shot will be through your leg." Ashr chuckled at this, easing up. "I have questions for you. And I want simple answers."

"Every person who came close to learning too much about the Harvesters vanished. What makes you think that I will tell you anything?"

"You don't have a choice! The creature's dead. There's nothing to protect you."

Charles felt chills at the smile Ashr made.

"What makes you think that I need protection?" the bug man asked, walking to the splattered puddle of black blood on the floor. They all aimed their weapons as the puddle suddenly came to life, vine-like tendrils sliding up Ashr's legs. They grew in length and size, some of them becoming as thick as garden hoses, wrapping themselves around his body. They burrowed into his skin like worms, a dark gelatinous mass forming around him, seeping out of his skin. "The Harvesters brought my family back from the grave. Now it's time I truly repay the favor. You can't stop the Harvesters any more than you can stop the rising sun. And like the sun, it is time for me to rise as well."

They all knew they should open fire but they were too transfixed on what was happening before them. Ashr vanished inside the black cocoon. But it didn't pop or rupture like it did for the man before. It melted. It liquefied and flowed off the body of what emerged forth. With the molted scales that composed its carapace, long spiny hairs on its back, it looked a hybrid of a narkoss and the monster before. It was humanoid with two arms and two legs but a webbed set of insect legs extended over its head like a hood. Its needle-like teeth were so long that they retracted when he closed his mouth and when it opened its mouth it looked like its jaw was being held open by stakes. As he stood up, they saw his now tall, lanky form, arms so long they reached its knees.

"I am Ashr Abaddon, Prophet of the Harvesters. Make peace with your gods for they have forsaken you."

-.-

 _A/N: Sorry for delay. I hope this chapter is to your liking. I've been busy and sitting on this for a while, mostly revising the final encounter between Ashr and the others. Out of all the factions, I'd say the Harvesters went through the most changes. They started out as a very Wraith-like race that looked like Collectors from Mass Effect. But I then turned them into zerg/tyranid-like animals. But, a combination of reading Call of Cthulu and playing Bloodborn helped me decide what to make them. When the stargate was first created, the galaxy was scary. Now, not so much since we're flying everywhere and kicking the ass of every enemy we come across. Even ascended beings aren't so high and mighty as when they first started out. I wanted to create something that would serve as a way to say 'don't get too cocky, mongrel'. Something not just unknown but unknowable and incomprehensible. Harvesters would be the eldritch abominations that serve the big guys. I kept rewriting the final scene since I wanted to make it clear these aren't like the Ori who are hellbent on power. They just don't care about the insects that get crushed while they're out mowing the lawn._


	3. Chapter 3

Martin, Arcturus, and Dod stared at the abomination before them. They were prepared to fight Harvesters but they never imagined it would be something like this.

"Look out!" Lok Dod yelled as Ashr suddenly leapt at them. Martin and Arcturus dove to the ground as the creature blasted through the tables. Samanya whipped around, transforming her sword into a rifle and opening fire, pelting Ashr with bolts of energy, pummeling him under a relentless storm. Martin felt a wave of relief when he saw this. Even Ori priors would die with wounds like that. But his relief was short lived as he watched stringy tendrils leap out of the wound, reconnecting the two severed halves and pulling it back together. Within moments, the injuries were gone.

Martin saw his opening. Samanya was fighting up close and he was in the back. It was the perfect setup for him. He took aim down the iron sights of his rifle and fired. The rifle was on minimum yield so each blast instantly cooked the patch of flesh they hit. He pulled the trigger on the rifle as quickly as he could, the lowest setting of the rifle giving him the highest rate of fire as well, pelting the monster with lethal bolts of energy.

Ashr shielded his face from the blasts like it was just some sand in his eye. From the back, Lok Dod went to work. The fish man began blasting Ashr with his revolver, chunks of ice forming around each area shot and shattering in a shower of frozen flesh.

It seemed like they were winning, burying Ashr under a storm of weapons fire. Out in the open, no weapon to fire back with, it seemed for sure that they would come out of this on top. With how lanky it was and how many chunks they were tearing out of it, it looked like they were going to rip it to pieces.

Suddenly, it glared up at them, its eyes glowing furiously.

Arcturus was about to fire again, but Ashr rushed forwards. With a single swing of his absurdly long limbs, tables and chairs went flying across the room. Martin and Dod ducked and took cover as pieces of wood, plates, and glass jars came raining back down. With two pests out of the way, Ashr charged at Arcturus. He ignored the weapons fire and slashed at her. His claws were moving too slow for her shield to register and it tore through her armor and flesh and sent her flying backwards, knocking over a table as she hit the floor with a crash, the plates of food shattering on the ground. Ignoring her wounds, Arcturus got up to fire upon Ashr again but a second slash sent her flying head-first into a counter. There was a loud crack as she smashed her head against the marble surface before she hit the ground. Ashr moved upon Arcturus's unconscious form. A long needle like claw seemed to extend from its knuckle, black liquid dripping from its tip like venom.

Martin wasn't about to let Ashr inject her with whatever that was. He got up and took aim with his ion rifle and prepared to fire. But someone else beat him to the punch. A massive fireball erupted from Ashr's back, sending him flying over the counter, bringing the computer and stacks of paper resting on it with him.

Martin looked over, realizing Dod had loaded explosive rounds into his revolver. Ashr tried to get up from behind the counter but another blast sent him flying into the wall. A third round created another fireball that sent Ashr crashing through the wall and into the back room. With a flick of his wrist, Dod opened the cylinder to his revolver, jamming in a yellow bullet into the chamber before closing it. He didn't even bother aiming the gun. Dod fired the round into the room, the bullet exploding the moment it hit the floor, filling the room with a sickening yellow gas.

"Get out of here!" he yelled to Martin, reloading his gun.

"Dod!" Martin called out in protest. He picked up Samanya, but he wasn't ready to leave the guy behind.

"I'm buying you time, you idiot!" Dod barked back. "We'll meet up in the forest!"

"Where?!" Martin barked back. Meet up in the forest? That place was huge.

"Just go!" Dod yelled again, jamming the last round into his revolver. "I'll be right behind you."

Martin stared at Dod. He didn't to leave. He wanted to stay and support his ally. But, he knew he couldn't let them all die.

"I won't forget this," Charles declared, picking up an unconscious Arcturus in his arm, slinging her rifle over his shoulder. He turned around and dashed out the door. With Martin gone, Lok Dod faced the yellow cloud in the back room, watching as Ashr emerged from the gas. His body had reformed, tendrils reconnecting the flesh until the injury was gone. Ashr smiled at Dod's futile attempts to kill him.

"Out of tricks yet?" Ashr growled. Dod glanced at his revolver, glancing at the bullets before glancing up at the pipe running above their heads.

"Not just yet…"

-.-

Even in the forest, Martin could hear the gunfire. And it all ended with one final boom that echoed across the forest. He figured the final boom was another one of Lok Dod's trick bullets. He could only hope the silence following it with no scream meant he got away.

Martin shook the thought out of his head. He had other things to worry about. Running with Arcturus in his arms wasn't easy, but his body was flooded with adrenaline. He could feel the muscles in his body begging for rest, but he didn't stop. The Harvester creature had evolved again. He remembered his encounters with the monstrous creatures and he could scarcely imagine what this thing was capable of.

He didn't know where he was going. All he knew was that he had to get away. He was sprinting into the woods even after the gunfire stopped. He leapt through the underbrush. He could imagine the nightmarish monster being right behind him. He didn't stop running until his legs finally gave out, practically melting under him and sending him tumbling to the ground.

"No!" he growled, trying to get back up, unconscious Samanya Arcturus lying in front of him. He picked up his ion rifle and her sword before stumbling over to her. His body was exhausted. His limbs just refused to move. Running to and from the abandoned city, fighting the Harvester, now running from the creature, it all had taken its toll on him.

Still, he couldn't let it end like this.

He practically fell on top of Samanya, trying to catch his breath.

Thinking about it, he guessed they could take a break if there was enough distance between them and the creature. He sighed and got to his knees. It was still dark but there was just enough sunlight peeking through the clouds that he could see. And what he saw took his breath away.

"The Stargate!" he gasped. He could barely stand, but he managed to stumble to the DHD and began desperate pressing the buttons. His pressing soon devolved into frustrated punching as he realized, and remembered, the DHD was broken.

He fell over. He needed to take a break. Looking over at the silver pedestal, he could see the control panel had been removed. Whoever was fixing it was messing with the control crystals. He could see the data pad and the wires connecting the two, half covered in dirt and laying on the ground. When he looked into the compartment that held all the crystals, he noticed a black slime that covered all the crystals.

"Bugger…" Martin muttered, realizing that the reason the DHD has been broken this entire time was because the Harvesters sabotaged it. But, that still left one question. Martin looked down at the dirt. The entire area around the gate was trampled from a single person walking around but he did spot a single set of fresh prints walking off into the woods. He stumbled forward, following the footprints. They didn't go far. They made it past a set of trees…then stopped. It certainly fit the Harvester MO. Entire planets of people disappearing without a trace as if they vanished where they stood. Martin stumbled back to Samanya, trying to decide whether he should try to go deeper into the woods.

He gave a sigh and went over to pick up her up again. The Stargate was too conspicuous of a place. If Ashr decided to look for them, this would probably the first place he checks. He didn't run. He just slowly walked into the underbrush. He would have to take Sam and hide somewhere else.

-.-

"Are you serious?"

Hailey and Chen were staring at a room full of scientists, all of them staring back with a dumbfounded expression. Felger nervously stood behind the two, looking at what might as well be an angry mob.

"You sure this is a good idea?" one of the scientists asked. "I mean…this is Felger we're talking about." Hailey knew what they were so uptight about. Felger had made himself a name as the man who failed every project and blew everything up. The idea of trusting Felger's little project seemed crazy. She and Chen may have double checked and designs and corrected all the mistakes they found, but they were still putting faith in Felger.

They all had heard about the time Felger made a virus to disable the Stargate network. It was made under the legendary Samantha Carter's supervision and it still went wrong. No one had faith in Felger's latest project even if it had been checked by Hailey and Chen.

"What's the big deal?" Chen asked. "You guys work with his blueprints all the time."

"Yeah, but we really haven't built any of his projects yet," a scientist in the back said. "Aren't you guys going to the planet to use it?" Chen picked up the hand-held device they had just finished building. It looked like a smart phone. When it was turned on, it would display all the gate's symbols on a touchscreen.

"We've already had several successfully tests on other Stargates including the Fierri's," Hailey said. "It should work."

"Then why doesn't it work on Millennium's gate?" another person near the back asked.

"Millennium's gate has a security system that was specifically made so that it couldn't be remotely dialed," Chen explained. "Fact of the matter is, we've done all that we can to make sure Felger's little project worked. Ideally, we would dedicate another few months to double checking to make sure everything works but we don't have that time."

"You know if it doesn't, you guys will be trapped on that planet," a scientist asked.

"You guys do know you are putting faith in Felger..?" another called out.

Chen and Hailey exchanged glances. They never thought they would ever say this.

"We know," they said firmly

-.-

Frozen chemicals.

Burnt wood.

Saw dust.

Poison gas.

Ashr was used to his tavern smelling like food and alcohol. It was actually almost heartbreaking to see the place in such a state. The once ornate main room was now covered in a fine layer of moisture from a kinetic round blasting the pipes open and a thermal round almost instantly turning it into steam. The water had mixed with the dust and debris, turning into grime that now slathered the floor and walls.

Ashr sighed at the sight. He could always rebuild later.

He walked into the back room through the hole in the wall, looking around at the demolished storage closet. He bent over and picked up shard of glass off the ground, using it as a mirror to take in his new appearance. It was no doubt monstrous, even nightmarish. Still, he could not deny its advantages.

As he looked at his reflection, he noticed something else behind him. It looked like a floating deformed organ, black cancerous growths forming on its surface, at least a dozen tentacles dangling beneath it.

"My friends!" Ashr greeting, turning around. "Come to check on me? Or is there another reason for this visit"

The strange floating creature made no response, no legible one at least. It simply emitted a lot guttural clicking.

"Not true," Ashr replied. "Our masters don't care about keeping their existence a secret. They simply don't want to be found."

The floating creature let out another few clicks, the teeth between its tentacles widening.

"Well, making everyone vanish was a poor way to keep their secret hidden. You really chose the worst way, in fact."

The creature gave a low and clearly agitated growl. Most people would run away in terror at the presence of this creature that seemed to defy all logic. But Ashr had been working with the unholy thing for quite a while and was used to its presence. It was little more than an associate.

Ashr paced around the room, listening to the guttural sounds of the creature behind him, looking at the tattered shelves that he used to use for storage.

"You're wrong," he finally said. "When a someone vanishes, people ask questions. And when those people vanish, more people come looking. There was never a way to hide our masters' existence. Their activities cause enough unnatural background radiation that anyone can detect it if they look. It was never a matter of keeping it a secret. It has always been to turn away all that get close."

The floating creature made no response this time. It simply floated into the center of the room, one of its tentacles lowering closer to the floor. It seemed attracted to the black blood that had been spilt from Ashr when he was thrown in here. The tentacle touched the pool of blood, soaking it up like a sponge until there was nothing left. It finally gave another few clicks, asking Ashr for an opinion.

"No harvest," Ashr answered. "Let things play out naturally. It's a gamble. But it may play out for all of us."

-.-

Light flooded Samanya's eyes, warmth flooding her body. She stumbled forward, stepping out of the pod. She turned around, still piecing together what happened. It was only when she turned around and saw the stasis pod did she understand. And when she did, panic flooded her body.

"No…" she breathed. She could see the control panel by the pod. It had been set for five days. She blinked several times, hoping she saw wrong, hoping this was all a dream.

"No!" she shouted, turning around and sprinting for the door. The heavy door took several moments to open, creaking to life as the hydraulic pumps forced the solid slab of metal to move. She took off down the tunnel, just a long cement hall lined with lights in the ceiling, a simple underground storage chamber beneath the compound. The lift ride up was unbearable as she waited in a tiny container to reach the surface. When the lift doors finally opened, she took off down a short corridor before bolting up the stairs, practically falling back down as she shoulder bashed the wooden door. With a second bash, the knob came flying off and she came stumbling outside. The light of the crimson setting soon filled her vision as she finally gazed upon what she feared most.

Nothing.

She stared out across the buildings that made up her fortress. She stared out at the forest beyond her compound. Or at least, she would if they were still there. The trees, the grass, the bushes, they were all gone. Nothing but dirt lay for as far as the eye could see. There wasn't anything. Not the buzzing of insects in the air. Not the cawing and squawking of birds in the distance. More importantly, there was no people. The fortress was empty. And she could only guess the town in the distance, the settlement she had tasked the Order to protect, was the same.

Arcturus fell to her knees, remembering everything that had happened moments before her men tricked her into going into the storage chamber and shoved her into the stasis pod.

"I should have listened," she muttered. "I'm sorry. We should have evacuated. It's my fault. I did this to you."

She stared out across the horizon, the faces of everyone she lost flashing before her teary eyes, the same sentence leaving her mouth over and over again.

"I'm sorry..."

Samanya woke up with a start. It was just a dream. No. It was just a nightmare, a memory she never wished to see again.

She tried to sit up but immediately fell back down. Her entire body was burning. The last thing she remembered was getting slashed by Ashr. She looked down, realizing she was no longer in her armor. She was left in a black T-shirt and pants, what she wore under her armor. She tried to sit up, but felt a burning pain slice through her body.

"Take it easy," Charles said, only a few feet away. The jacket of his BDU was gone so he was also in a black T-shirt. Arcturus soon found out what he did with it. When she lifted her own shirt, she found a make-shift bandage made of ripped black cloth wrapped around her body.

"Didn't really have a choice there," Martin immediately said. He did essentially undress her while she was unconscious. "You bleeding out so I had to patch you up."

"It doesn't matter," Arcturus said dismissively. She began feeling around for her weapon, gently picking it up off the ground. It was back in sword-form. She leaned against it and got to her feet. Her entire body burned from the slash wounds but she would manage.

Her mind lingered on what happened at the tavern.

"What happened to Ashr?" she asked. "Is he still alive?"

"Are you bloody serious, lady?" Martin barked back upon hearing this. "We both just got our asses handed to us and you still want to try to take him alive." Samanya looked away. She should've known Martin would still disapprove. "Even after all this, you still want your revenge?!"

"Yes!" Samanya yelled back. "My men, my people, those under my care are gone because of my failings. I will see that the Harvesters pay for everything they did! I have no choice."

"Blah-blah-blah-blah!" Martin stuttered out really quickly, shutting Arcturus up. "You've told me this story before! And it's a load of rubbish. You have plenty of choices. You can live for yourself. Leading your people was a matter of responsibility. Killing yourself on this stupid quest is idiocy! Don't go throwing your life away for people who don't matter anymore. The past is the past. Bury it and let it go."

Arcturus clenched her fist when she heard this. It sent chills down her body to hear Martin say the men under her command 'don't matter anymore'.

"The moment I took my position as leader of the Aurox, I took on the responsibilities and duties as well," Arcturus said calmly, finally able to reign in her anger. "I've failed those duties and I must atone for that failure. I've only had one desire and that is to see the end of the Harvesters. I understand that it is an impossible goal, but pursuing that will be my penance."

"You dress it up in fancy words but this isn't penance. It's just revenge."

"If that is what you wish to call it…. Then yes, I seek revenge. I seek to end the Harvesters for the lives they've taken. Every action I've taken since the fall of my order has been toward this goal."

"We have a saying back on Earth: those who seek revenge should dig two graves. You obsess exacting revenge, you'll end up destroying yourself in the process."

"You think I don't know that?! Have you ever considered that I know this is a one-way journey for me?! Have you ever considered that people who try to get revenge are willing to dig that grave? I've stopped caring about what happens to me. My final act in this life will be bringing about the end of the Harvesters."

"Are you so blinded by revenge that you can't even hear yourself?! What about Lok Dod. Can't help but notice you didn't ask about him."

"He was willing to kill you without hesitation before and now you defend him?"

"He was a member of our troop. He was an ally that was willing to buy us time to escape! And he could be alive for all we know! You're so obsessed with ending the Harvesters you don't even seem concerned about your own allies. Even if you aren't going to do something for yourself, can't you do it for the people who care about you?! Have you ever thought about how they feel? What about the people you care about? Have you ever thought how you'd hurt them?"

"Funny you of all people should mention this," Arcturus said darkly, closing her eyes. "Did you not join the military without any regard for the feelings of your family? War is a dirty business. Have you ever stop to consider how they feel when their son is sent away? The fear they might feel about never seeing you again? Or did you simply ignore their feelings of fear and pain because of your sense of duty?'

"I…my situation's different!" Martin snapped back. He tried to hide it, but Arcturus could see him shift uncomfortably, as if he just realized something he never considered before.

"Did I touch a nerve?" Samanya scoffed. "I understand that you wish to leave this planet as soon as possible. With the other pirates dead, you can easily take their ship. I will rest and once I have recovered I will face Ashr on my own."

Samanya didn't bother looking at Martin. She could hear him growling at her.

"Fine!" he barked, turning around and storming off. "You want to stay around here and let your ass get assimilate by those freaks, be my guest!"

-.-

Felger watched eagerly as Hailey and Chen worked on the DHD. They were back on the planet and were busy pulling the partially damaged control crystals. The DHD looked almost like a deformed melted candle. The ground was covered in fragments of the DHD, a few twisted and burnt shards of metal, and the tiles that held the symbols were sticking out of the sand.

Hailey and Chen reached inside the DHD and pulled out crystal after crystal, some fresh and undamaged. Others burned, blackened, and singed. Finally, they emptied the pedestal of its devices.

"There we go," Hailey said, putting everything into her bag. "That's the last of it."

"That was easier than I thought," Felger commented.

"The DHD's a mini server farm," Chen said, zipping up Hailey's bag and helping her put it back on. "They're made so you can just yank stuff out and replace it."

"Once we get back to Millennium, we're going to have to extract whatever data we can from these crystals," Hailey explained. "Then we'll have to compare it to the data we have on the gate when it's active."

"Best get to work, Mini-Cater," Chen remarked, folding his arms. Hailey smiled at the little compliment. She took out the remote DHD they had just made, turning it on and watching the symbols populate the screen.

"Moment of truth," she sighed. If they were wrong about this, then they had just trapped themselves on an alien planet. Hailey pressed the first symbol on the touch screen and looked up. Her heart soared. The gate had activated, the inner ring of the silvery device spinning as it found its first symbol. Chen stood near the gate, making sure the symbol she punched in was the symbol they wanted. Finally, it found its way to the top and was locked in by the egg-shaped chevron, the milky-white opal lit up.

"We're good," Chen called out. Hailey pressed the next symbol and the gate hummed to life again to search for the next chevron.

Felger felt a smile spread across his face. One by one, they found each symbol and locked it in until they had all seven symbols locked in. Hailey pressed the final button and they watched as the shimmering wall of water exploded from the ring before getting sucked back in, resting inside it as a shimmering wall of water.

It was time for the final test.

"Millennium, this is Major Hailey," Jennifer said through her radio.

"Major Hailey, this is Donavan. We read you loud and clear."

Felger couldn't hold it in any more.

"YES!" he cheered, jumping up and down in excitement, practically dancing and kicking up sand.

"Millennium, we're heading back with the parts," Hailey said through the radio as Chen punched in the code into his GDO. "We're coming home!"

-.-

The abandoned haven was creepy enough now that it was abandoned. But now Charles had to make his way through it alone. It was supposed to be midday, but the dark gray clouds had completely covered the sun. It was just barely bright enough for him to see where he was going but just that. He could barely see the outline of the building across the street. He wanted to turn on his flashlight but with Ashr roaming about, he was afraid the light would attract his attention. He was going to have to rely on memory to navigate the place.

Still, he couldn't help but feel sad looking at the empty town. It was filled with pirates that hated him and wanted him dead. Still, he couldn't really say that they deserved this fate. No one deserved this fate.

Martin stopped in his tracks when he noticed something in the window of the building in front of him. At first he thought it was just a pointless shadow. But then he noticed the shape. It was humanoid. And it was moving. He didn't need to see the details to know it was Ashr.

Martin slowly back-pedaled, careful not to make too much noise. He could barely imagine what the thing in front of him looked like, couldn't even imagine what the Harvesters mutated him into this time.

He took cover behind a wall. He could hear it now. He could hear the gentle footsteps against the ground. It was unnerving that a single wall of sheet metal was all that stood between him and whatever was on the other side.

Martin slowly took out his knife. It was suicide but curiosity was getting to him. It was Ashr. He was sure of it. But he needed to know what the man looks like now. He slowly inched the blade of his knife around the corner. He looked at the shiny blade, looking at the reflection. It was a distorted image but he could see the black humanoid figure lumbering past, the tall lanky beast just walking through the abandoned pirate haven. It disturbed Charles that it's arms were so long that it only need to lean forward to crawl on all fours. He could tell it had mutated again but he couldn't see the details on the blurry reflection of the blade.

His curiosity sated, he put his blade away. Now, it was only a question of whether he should move or wait for Ashr to leave.

His question was answered for him when he felt a gentle breeze blow past him. He let out a silent groan of annoyance. He was upwind. Which meant that wind would blow his scent right at Ashr. Right on cue, he could hear Ashr's footsteps begin to grow louder as the mutant creature began to make its way toward him.

He didn't have time to think about it. Ashr was making its way around the building which meant he would have to go in the other direction and put himself downwind. He slowly made his way around the building, the soft sound of Ashr right behind him. Once he was on the other side of the building, he began walking off into the distance. He had to count his lucky stars. The space port was down wind so at least his smell would be masked.

He didn't have time to ponder. He had to get to the spaceport.

-.-

Martin had a decent array of ships he could just from. With the Stargate down, the only source of commerce for the haven was by ship. Now it was only a matter of boarding one. Most of them had their ramps retracted so there was no way for him to get aboard. He had to find one that had an old-fashioned door. He continued walking down the rows of parked ships. He rushed up to the ones with regular doors and pulled on the nob. Again and again, they were locked.

He was just about to test a nearby corvette when he spotted one: a ship with its ramp opened.

Martin felt his heart soar. He had a ship. He wasn't out of the woods yet. He was far from it, in fact. Still, this was a victory. He rushed to the ship, looking inside. He finally got the courage to turn on his flashlight and shine it into the ship. It was a simple cargo ship, a single cargo bay lined with crates leading to the cockpit. Looking down, he understood why the ramp was open. He knelt down, putting his hand on a puddle of black slime on the ground, a pulse rifle laying right beside it. He could only imagine the poor bloke trying to get away when the Harvester got him.

He couldn't mourn the stranger now. He had to get out.

Reaching the cockpit, he soon came across his next challenge: figuring out how to fly the ship. He gazed over the controls. Forget flying the ship. He had to figure out how to start it. Was it a button he had to hit? Did it need a key? He prayed not because that would mean he would have to find a key.

"Bugger me," Martin muttered, looking over all the controls. Suddenly, trying to jack a ship to escape from seemed like a dumb idea. The only thing he could figure out was the joystick but even that presented a problem: there were two of them.

"Ok, ok, ok," Martin muttered as he began pressing random buttons. "I swear if I accidentally hit the self-destruct button, I'm gonna kill myself."

He had to have been pressing buttons for like five minutes. He found the controls to the lights in the cargo bay and the controls to the headlights outside the ship.

"Yes!" Charles cheered when one of the dials he turned started up the ship. He could feel the floor beneath him begin to rumble, the engine humming to life. "Alright, part two: how to fly." The roar of the engines was louder than it should be since he never figured out how to raise the ramp but that wasn't at the top of his list of priorities.

He let out a yell as he pushed one of the joysticks and the ship suddenly lurched forwards. Cursing his own stupidity, he took a seat and began to think about all the different controls. He pulled back on the same joystick and felt the ship lurch backwards, the entire craft creaking as it dragged its ramp and support legs across the ground. He even heard at least one snap off. He pressed forward on the second joystick and felt the ship tilt forward, the crates in the cargo bay sliding across the floor.

Considering his options and how he had no idea what the rest of the controls, he opted to fly back to Samanya using only these two controls. He just had to figure out how to get this hunk of junk off the ground. There was probably a lever that controlled vertical takeoff but he didn't have time to find it.

Charles pulled back on the tilt stick before pushing forward on the movement stick. He could hear the cargo in the back sliding as the ship tilted itself, anything not anchored down tumbling out the back. He could have Samanya figure out how to close the ramp. Right now, he just wanted to get to her. He didn't know where Millennium was in space but if Samanya could take him to a stargate he could just gate back. But first, he had to get to her.

He felt his body whip forward when he accidentally clipped the edge of a building. He still had a long way to go, but he was starting to get the hang of this.

He had a general idea where he was going. And he turned the ship's spotlights back on so he could see the forest floor as he slowly flew over the tree tops. He didn't even need to find Samanya. She wasn't close to the Sargate but he knew where she was in relation to it, assuming she hadn't moved, so he only needed to find the gate. And that was easy to see.

"Alright, Sam," Charles said to himself. "You're gonna hate me for this, but I don't care. I'm taking you with me to Millennium."

He could see the silver Stargate in the distance. He just had to bring the ship down somehow. As he aimed the ship at the ground, the light difference between the darkness of the outside and the brightly lit inside of the ship had become noticeable. He was sure there was probably a button that removed the reflection but he didn't know where it was. He could turn off the cargo bay lights but he didn't know where the cockpit lights were, and all he could see through the window was his own reflection.

That's when he noticed it. It wasn't just his reflection he could see through the cockpit window. His blood chilled, his eyes blinking as if to make sure he wasn't seeing things. In the reflection, he could see a humanoid figure standing in the cargo bay, a tall lanky humanoid figure.

He turned around, spotting a humanoid figure standing in the cargo bay, leering at him with its sunken eyes. It opened its jaws, a second jaw extending forth, its long needle-like teeth extending as it let out a bone-chilling roar.

Charles yanked out his pistol, took aim, and began pulling the trigger as quickly as he could. Not long after, he heard the empty click as he emptied the last of his bullets into the creature, but to no avail. He didn't even bother to reload. Martin immediately began fumbling with his ion rifle, accidentally bumping the yield dial. He didn't even bother fixing it. He just aimed his rifle at the creature and fired.

-.-

Samanya was inspecting her armor. The claws had twisted the metal so that it was now unusable. But a little metallurgy would be able to fix it. The uniform was also damaged but that was just a piece of cloth so it didn't really matter. But it wasn't the armor or uniform that concerned her. She fumbled with the gauntlets until it came off: the shield generator. It was still intact and undamaged. This was her primary source of protection. She was glad it was still functional. She then reached into the pocket of her uniform, pulling out the science journal, easily the most important thing. She looked at her rifle. It was also undamaged. Even if Martin left, she could continue her quest.

She looked up at the skies at the sound of an engine roaring, a ship clumsily teetering back and forth across the sky. It looked like Charles actually figured out how to pilot one of the ships. He was only using the small thrusters but it didn't matter.

Suddenly, the craft suddenly began spinning, veering left and right. It was as if the person at the controls suddenly went insane. It couldn't have been Charles. Even if he didn't know how to fly or land, the way he maneuvered the ship here would suggest he had some idea of how the controls worked.

Samanya watched as the corvette dove into the ground, the forest floor exploding from its impact. She spotted the column of splinters and dirt launch up into the air before showering back to the ground.

"Charles!" she gasped. Her wounds were still burning but she didn't care. She had to make sure he was ok.

She made her way to the crash site. The ship wasn't too high off the ground when it impacted so it was still in once piece. The metal tub was embedded deep into the ground and was half covered in dirt and fallen trees. Still, she didn't care about the ship. She was worried about the person inside the ship.

"Charles!" she called out, hoping to get a response. She stared at the mangled ramp that led into the ship, a cloud of smoke rising from the hole. She stared at the smoking hole, not sure what to do. She was about to approach the remains of the ship when she heard a cough.

She felt a wave of relief as she watched Charles crawl out of the ship, his ion rifle hanging from his shoulders, his right hand holding a massive burn wound on his left arm. Blood trickled from a wound on his head.

Samanya rushed up to him, letting him lean on her.

"Figures I'm the one who gets killed by a movie trope," Charles sighed. "He's in there." Charles weakly pointed at the ship. "He should be busy growing back his head. Go get him."

Samanya looked at the ship. This was the perfect opportunity to go in and get him.

"C'mon," Samanya said, leading Charles away. She still intended to get Ashr. But first, she needed to make sure Charles was ok. The Harvester still needed several seconds to regenerate. She had time.

She took him to the side and leaned him against a tree. He was bleeding from his stomach too. She didn't know what was in the ship but she could guess something loose hit him. Gently brushing aside the ripped edges of the shirt, she could see a shard of metal embedded in his stomach. It was certainly painful, but it wasn't lethal. She then gently felt around his stomach and chest. He had at least one broken rib.

"How bad is it?" Martin asked.

"Well, your death won't be horribly painful," Samanya replied with a smile. Martin gave a chuckle. She said this statement with a straight face too.

"Now I know you're not being serious." he laughed, wincing as each laugh sent shooting pains up his body. Even Sam had to smile at this.

It was only then Samanya noticed Charles's expression stiffen as he looked past her. Samanya turned around and she felt her blood run cold.

They could see a set of long spindly legs slowly inching over the busted ramp of the ship. They latched onto the edge of the ship and hoisted up the abomination within.

"Bloody hell," Charles groaned in pure frustration as Ashr rose from the ship. His wound had not only regenerated but mutated. Martin had blown a hole through its body so it grew spider legs from its spine. Martin had blown the top of its head off, so it grew a new head, a smooth bone-like surface where its eyes should be. "Why is everything in this galaxy so damn hard to kill?!"

Ashr let out an ear-piercing screech. Charles immediately aimed his ion rifle and fired. But Ashr dropped on all his limbs and leapt to the side as the bolt hit the ground and exploded behind him. Arcturus grabbed her own rifle but didn't get the chance to fire it. Ashr leapt up into the air, clinging onto a tree and taking off into the canopy of the leaves.

Charles tried to get to his feet but merely pushing on the ground sent him back writhing in pain.

"Stay down!" Arcturus ordered, aiming her rifle into the trees and opening fire. Light split open the darkness with crimson light as bolts of energy streaked into the canopy above. Ashes and embers rained from above, scorched branches and bark falling to the ground. Arcturus cursed under her breath as she realized that Ashr was out of sight somewhere in the tree leaves.

"Charles, go!" Arcturus ordered. "I have business to settle."

"You crazy?!" Martin barked back. "We have to get out of here!"

"You go! I'm staying!"

Charles and Samanya's arguing could be heard up in the treetops. And it made Ashr laugh; a long hollow cackle.

"Even now, you still wish to throw yourselves into our maw," a cold scathing voice came echoing from the canopy.

"I swear that I will wipe the stain of your evil from this universe."

Ashr furious snarling echoed from the darkness around them.

"I don't know what's more infuriating," Ashr roared from the tree tops, his voice echoing through the night. "Your ignorance or your arrogance? Would you acknowledge the views of an insect colony to be of any importance? You think because of your stargates and hyperdrives, because of your ships and computers, your word of what is and isn't is absolute. Rule and live how you wish but don't presume you who is finite can dictate the rules and ways of that which is not."

While Ashr continued rambling on, Arcturus was busy examining the tree trunks. After going through several, she found one that seemed to be shaking more than it should, shaking with each word that left the fowl creature's mouth.

"Time to shut you up," she muttered angrily. She aimed at the base of the trunk with her rifle and pulled the trigger, a storm of bolts blasting through the wood trunk, splinters and embers flying in all direction. Within moments, the trunk had been disintegrated. She jumped back as the massive tree came crashing down, smashing its way past the other branches before it hit the ground with a crash, a cloud of dust kicked up from the impact.

Arcturus got ready, aiming her rifle into the haze. Ashr didn't even bother waiting. It burst out of the pile of tree branches and charged. Samanya was about to pull the trigger but it was too late. She felt a set of claws get pushed straight through her body. She could feel the paths the bony points took, the flesh around them burning as if they were on fire. But that should've been impossible. He was still standing a good distance away from her.

Looking up, she realized that his right hand seemed to have been shot from its arm like a crossbow, connected to where it used to be by a single long tentacle, wielding his claw like a whip. Skewered by the talons, Ashr lifted her up and tossed her aside. He was about to descend upon her when a bolt hit his arm, the tendril connecting his wrist to his hand exploding off. Ashr roared in frustration, turning to face Martin. The human had grabbed his ion rifle. Ashr moved forwards and seized Martin by the throat with his left hand, lifting him off the ground. The creature opened its mouth, which seemed to have something glowing within.

"You can hear it, can't you," Ashr asked through his mutated jaws. "The drones you encountered before were merely designed for reconnaissance. But a forerunner like a myself, we act as beacons. Though me, you can hear them."

Martin actually knew what Ashr was talking about. He thought it was just pressure, that maybe he was hearing things because of how tired he was. When he first arrived on the planet it was just nightmares. But now he could hear it: voices in the back of his mind. It sounded like someone was standing behind him, whispering in his ear. He couldn't focus. He couldn't concentrate. Now he could not help but wonder if it was something more.

"Join us, Charles Martin. The Harvesters are not a malevolent race. If you could just see how small and insignificant you are in the grand scheme of things, you could understand why their actions truly don't matter. Besides, the masters could always use another prophet, especially a member of the Tau'ri. What do you say?"

Charles tried to say something but Ashr's grip was too tight so only gurgles came out.

"You might want to speak up," Ashr remarked, easing his grip.

It was only then Samanya began to recover from her new wounds, barely getting to her feet and looking at what was happening.

"I said…" Samanya heard Charles growl through his teeth. "Smile, you son of a bitch!" Charles raised his rifle and placed it directly against Ashr's head.

"Charles, what are you doing?!" Samanya called out. But it was too late. Charles pulled the trigger. In a single flash of light and a deafening boom, Ashr and Martin were launched in either direction. Arcturus shielded her face with her arms from the wall of dirt and debris that flew at her. When she looked up, she could see Martin's mangled body in front of her. She crawled across the ground to him, placing her fingers on his throat. The pulse was weak, but it was there.

His rifle was on medium yield. That was the only explanation. At minimum yield, it wouldn't create the explosion she saw. And if it was on maximum yield, his body would be in pieces. Still, that was too close for Martin to use his rifle at medium yield. He was now coughing up blood and she was sure that broken rib now punctured something.

Samanya looked up, watching as Ashr's body healed again, tendrils shooting out of its wound and reconnecting the two sections of his body, growing a new hand and reforming its head. Its spidery legs were fusing together, forming new limbs.

"You know," Ashr remarked, his newly formed hands reaching across his chest and pulling himself together. "I don't even think I needed to harvest the haven. It's easier to work in the seclusion of the woods instead of the maze of buildings where people can hide."

"Impressive trick," Arcturus scoffed. "But you can't get something from nothing. You can only regenerate your wounds so many times before you run out of energy. Then, your life is forfeit."

"Is this not what you wanted?" Ashr asked as his wounds stopped regenerating. "I thought you wanted me alive, Samanya Arcturus. After all, you sacrificed everything for this moment. You sacrificed your honor as a knight. You betrayed everything the Aurox stood for. You used innocent people bait for your own gains. And you've even sacrificed Charles Martin, your partner who willingly helped you, for this moment. Rejoice, Arcturus. Your sacrifice has paid off."

Samanya looked at Charles again, thinking back to all he had done for her.

"It was for my people," Samanya said, closing her eyes.

"Keep telling yourself that," Ashr laughed. "But you know what I think? I think you just couldn't stomach taking responsibility for your own actions. Your advisors told you to evacuate, that the planet was within the harvesters' path of expansion. But rather than evacuate like they suggested, you chose to stay and fight."

"There was no way to evacuate all the settlements on the planet in time!" Arcturus argued. "It is the duty of the Aurox to protect the innocent."

"So you chose to stay and fight. You tried to save them all. But, in the end, you saved none. Now you're just trying to make yourself feel better for your failures as a leader, even if that means at the cost of other people, trying to erase the guilt of your poor decisions."

Arcturus wanted to retort, to say that he was wrong. But, she couldn't bring herself to do it. She closed her eyes, thinking about everything Charles told her. She rose to her feet, her rifle powering up in her hand.

"You're right," she said, the parts of her weapon shifting and moving. She could feel the energy being sapped from her body. "You're right about me. No more innocents will pay for my failures. Now, I will pay for my own transgressions."

Energy surged through Samanya's weapon as the rifle continue transforming, it's barrel becoming bigger, its grips shifting so that it could rest atop the wielder's shoulder.

"What are you doing, Arcturus?" Ashr asked in amusement.

"I will no longer hold back," she growled. "Let's see you survive a fully charged shot!"

"Aurox weapons were meant to be fueled by the energy of their wielders. You'll drain your fuel cell dry and it'll begin sapping you for extra power. You fire that weapon fully charged, you might not survive. Don't you care about what happens to yourself?"

The gun had finished transforming and was now glowing with energy. Samanya's vision was blurring. She could feel her weapon draining her of her life energy.

"No," Samanya said darkly. "But I do care about the lives of the people close to me."

"And they're all dead."

Samanya looked at Charles Martin.

"Not all of them," she said. "You know, Ashr. I too find the seclusion of the woods to be advantageous. You see, out here I no longer have to worry about scorching the town with my blade!"

Ashr let out a roar and charged at Sam, the glow of her weapon intensifying. It was as if there was a miniature star at the back of her gun.

Suddenly, Ashr let out a pained yell when his back erupted in to flames, sending the creature into the ground. Arcturus looked up, spotting a familiar figure standing atop a hill in the distance, his revolver still smoking from the shot.

"Arcturus, do it now!" he yelled. Arcturus gave a single nod. She mounted her newly-formed cannon on her shoulder and took aim at the creature, the blinding white light laminating its nightmarish form. It could not regenerate fast enough. She gritted her teeth, her vision blurring as she gave a final shout:

"NOW DIE!"

A massive stream of crimson energy erupted from the barrel of her gun, engulfing Ashr and tearing through the forest. Wood and stone evaporated, the sheer heat of the beam disintegrating everything in its path. The beam finally died and as the light did as well, Samanya looked at the carnage she had just caused. A wall of trees surrounded her, and now there was a hole in the wall that went through the forest, a tunnel going through the mass of trees and rocks. A plume of steam slowly rose from the demolished ground, embers on the destroyed wood still crackling. There was no sign of Ashr. He had vanished along with everything else that had been caught in the beam.

Samanya's knees finally gave out. She fell to the ground in a heap, her rifle clattering to the side. The depleted power cell fell from its socket. That single shot had used up a fully charged power cell and most of her life energy. She could barely move. All she could do was crawl over to Charles's unconscious form.

"Charles?" she wheezed. She couldn't even tell if he was still alive. Her arms soon gave out and she fell to her stomach. She used the last of her energy to roll herself onto her back, staring up at the sky. "I'm sorry, Charles," she muttered to herself. "I should've listened to you earlier."

She stared at the gray skies, watching as her world faded to black.

-.-

Martin let out a weak groan. Before it hurt to breathe. Now it just hurt. He looked around, spotting Arcturus on the ground next to him.

"Sam," he wheezed. "Sam?"

"Save your breath," a voice said. Martin couldn't move his head. But he could move his eyes. And he could see Lok Dod walk over him, tapping his forehead with the barrel of his gun. "She's alive. But there's nothing you can do to help her."

Martin let out a weak groan, not sure whether to feel panic or relief.

"And Ashr?" he asked.

"What's left of him goes as far as the eye can see," Lok Dod remarked with a chuckle. "Your girlfriend did a real number on him."

Charles didn't even bother giving a retort. He was too tired to.

"So what now?" he wheezed. "Still want to kill me?" Dod twirled his revolver in his hand, looking at it with keen interest.

"I'll admit," he said. "When I saw you just lying there, it crossed my mind." Martin was too tired and hurt to feel anything when he saw Dod take aim. But, a smile spread across the fish-man's face and he holstered his weapon. "The valgrind opened just a few moments ago. Your friends will be finding you soon enough."

"And what about you?"

"Eh, you didn't wreck all the ships at the space port. Figured I'd hotwire one and fly out of here. It'll break the old man's heart but I'll tell him that his little girl was harvested. That should satisfy him, hopefully discourage anyone else from snooping."

"So you're sparing me?" Charles wheezed.

"Surprised? Trust me I am as well." Lok Dod crouched down and put a hand on Martin's shoulder. "I hope we work together again in the future," he said sincerely. He stood back up, aiming his revolver up at the sky. With a single pull of his trigger, a brilliant flare shot into the sky. The last thing Martin saw was Lok Dod walk away, giving a wave behind him as the word faded to black.

-.-

"Jesus Christ, what do you think did this?"

"Stay focused. Whatever did it might come back."

"Major, we found him! He's over here."

"Za pulse is weak. We must get him back to Millennium. Beelien"

"We found another! She's still breathing."

"Barely breathing."

"Get another stretcher over here!"

"You sure that's a good idea? We don't know anything about her."

"We'll sort it out later. Bring her back to Millennium."

"Mercer's gonna love this…"

-.-

Martin gave a weak groan. His entire body felt like it was on fire. All he could hear was a steady beeping. He tried to move his arm but it felt like it was too stiff to move. Finally, he opened his eyes and let the light flood his vision. As the white began to subside, he realized he was in the Millennium infirmary. Looking down, he realized he was in a white hospital gown. He couldn't see it, but he could feel his entire body covered in bandages.

He looked around him, realizing that he was surrounded by his team. Nova was standing beside him, scruffing his hair. Corin was in a chair beside the bed, giving him a friendly wave. Chen was asleep in the bed next to him with Hailey sitting in a chair, resting her head on Steven's chest.

"Ugh, bugger me," Charles muttered, trying to sit up.

"Hey, easy there," Corin said, holding Martin down. "According to Doctor Osborn, you got burns across most of your body and more than a few broken bones." Charles instinctively touched the bandages around his head. He could feel the fresh wounds on his cheek.

"It's a good thing we have Alliance medical technology," Nova remarked with a smile. "Otherwise, some of those injuries would be permanent."

Charles groaned as he laid back and made himself comfortable.

"Hey, I'm like an action hero," Martin chuckled. "They get hurt one episode, but they're on their feet and kicking ass the next."

"That simply means you're suicidal," Chen groaned, still half asleep.

"You should've seen him," Nova said with a smile, seeing her opportunity to humiliate Chen. "He worked his ass off to find you."

"I know what you're doing, Terra," Chen protested. "I'm too tired to deal with your crap right now."

Charles chuckled. He was too tired to bother Chen, anyways.

"Wait a minute," Martin spoke up, looking around in a panic

"Martin?" Nova asked curiously. "What is it?

"Well, two things," Martin stuttered out. "Was there a notebook when you found us?" Corin and Nova exchanged glances, confused why martin would be in a panic over that.

"We found it on the ground," Corin said. "It's right now in my room. I was going to read it later."

"Don't," Martin said firmly. "Lock it in a safe. I'll explain everything later. But, whatever you do, don't read it!"

"Ok…" Corin said slowly. "And what's the second thing?"

"Where's Sam?"

"Probably back on Earth," Chen wheezed from his hospital bed.

"Not that Sam! The…the blonde one!"

"Still back on Earth."

"Oh, shut it."

"She recovered yesterday," Corin explained. "You both have been out for a couple days now. She was in a coma when we found her but Kara managed to patch her up."

"I want to see her," Charles said, trying to sit up but Nova held him in place. With his broken leg, he couldn't get up by himself Corin quickly picked up the pair of crutches laying by the bed and handed it to Martin. Nova and Corin gently eased him onto his good foot, careful to keep his broken foot in the air.

"I'm good," Charles said, hobbling his way out of the infirmary.

-.-

Arcturus was exactly where the guards said she was. She was in one of the empty storerooms, fully rested and healed after the stunt she pulled. This was actually the first time he'd seen her in her 'civilian' clothes. Martin could only assume the clothes she wore had been lent to her. He didn't know where she had put her armor, but now she wore a white dress shirt buttoned all the way to the top and a navy-blue knee-length skirt. She had taken off her shoes and had put on black stockings as if the place was some sort of dojo that she couldn't wear shoes into.

She was at the center of the wooden floor, sitting on her knees, her eyes closed and her head down like she was meditating. The clacking of the crutches caught her attention. She opened her eyes and looked his direction. They stared at each other for a moment, neither of them saying anything. This all still seemed surreal. It had been so long since he was on Millennium, part of him wondered if he was going to wake up and find himself back on the planet.

Finally, Martin spoke up.

"Sam, what're you doing here?"

"Your General Mercer was kind enough to permit me sanctuary," Samanya explained, getting to her feet. She fell silent again, looking at his casted foot before looking back up at his bandaged face. "How are your injuries?"

"Eh, give it a few days," Charles said, stretching his right arm as if to prove a point. "I'll be back and kicking ass in no time."

"I'm glad," Arcturus said. "I…want to apologize. Had I listened to you, you might not have been as injured as you are now."

"Hey, it's an occupational hazard," Martin said casually. "I'm just glad you finally pulled your head out of your ass."

Samanya smiled at Martin's humorous slight at her.

"Revenge had blinded me for the longest time," she said. "I disgraced everything the Aurox stood for, placed innocents in harm's way for my own gains. I will repay you for all that you have done for me."

"Nah, forget it," Charles remarked with a dramatic wave of his hand. "We're friends now. You don't owe me anything. Hell, maybe you can stay here. We could always use another heavy hitter."

Arcturus looked at Martin in surprise, stunned that he was not angrier at her. But, her stunned look dissolved into a smile.

"I'd like that," she replied.

-.-

General Mercer leaned back in his chair at his desk, his mustache twitching. He looked at the small group of suited men before him.

"Gentlemen," the old man greeted, folding his hands in front of him. "You seem displeased with the current arrangements."

The four men stared at the aging general. Between his age, his blue dress uniform, and what they knew about him, there was something about Mercer that commanded fear. Not respect, but fear.

"You took in the newest member rather quickly." the man on the far right commented, looking down upon Mercer.

"I hardly see what the issue is," William Mercer said calmly. "From what I hear, she can prove herself to be invaluable to the team as a former Knight of Aurox. And was it not the IOA that dictated the mandate to bring in more alien allies? Wolf Pack and now the Berserkers have both greatly benefitted from their new additions."

"We question the integrity of some of these newcomers," another man said. "Samanya Arcturus spent a fair amount of time using her allies for her own gains. Soren Stavig's was a mass murderer that was responsible for the deaths of over sixty people."

"A majority of which were Valken Royal Guards that were out on patrol," Mercer pointed out. "Highly trained and heavily armed elite soldiers. You've seen his training results. His close quarters combat abilities are unprecedented. If you are still fearful of his actions, he still is escorted by a marine when roaming Millennium."

"It's also the morality of this action. We do not pardon murderers simply because they feel remorseful."

"If you wish for me to dismiss Soren, just say the word. And when your worst fears are realized, you will no longer have his skills at your disposal." Mercer watched in amusement as the four men shift uncomfortably. "I see. I guess fear really does take precedence over morality."

"None of it will matter if we cannot sway them to our side if the time comes," one of the IOA members said.

"What would you have me do? I have done exactly as you wished and you still question my actions."

"We question your motivations, Am-heh," the man on the far left said in an inhumanly deep and distorted voice. Mercer smiled at the accusation.

"If you truly believe that I am attempting something, then take me out, Tok'ra," the aging General replied. "I am under constant surveillance by your assassins. Surely, the three waiting outside could kill me."

The four men took a nervous step back at Mercer's remark as the General's eyes flashed.

"Enough!" one of the IOA members spoke. "Back on topic. I believe it was the Tok'ra that called this impromptu meeting today."

"Indeed," the Tok'ra official said. "After reading Lieutenant Martin's mission report, I believe we must pursue the Harvesters. Their bio-engineering capabilities are unprecedented."

"What do you hope to accomplish?" the IOA official on the far right scoffed.

"He's hoping that by studying the abilities of the Harvesters," Mercer explained. "They may be able to genetically alter a Tok'ra symbiote to become a queen."

"It may be the secret to saving our race," the Tok'ra added. "We do not know the extent of their bio-engineering capabilities but surely if they can mutate one species into another, turning a Tok'ra symbiote into a queen should be within their abilities.

"I guess we'll add it to the list of topics we need to discuss," the third IOA representative remarked. "It seems we have much to discuss."

-.-

The dark hallways at the edge of Millennium has not seen activity for thousands of years. But, now a single lone figure regularly came through there, delivering reports to his master.

"Sir," he announced as he walked into the room, the hooded figure in a long coat looking up from his strange chess board, a board that seemed to be designed for five players.

"So, I assume you've finished listening to Lieutenant Martin debrief his friends," the hooded man said, taking a seat in front of the chess board. "Tell me, Halphas, what do you think of his story?"

"Anything in particular?"

"Ashr and the Harvesters," the hooded man stated, leaning forward in interest. "What do you make of the narkoss's story?"

Halphas fell silent, his hand to his chin as he recounted the mission report in his head.

"He could just be a useful idiot," Halphas remarked, pacing back and forth. "The System Lords always perpetuated stories like this to elevate their status. The Harvesters simply manipulated him into believing in a far higher power. Then again, it's also possible every word he said was true."

"Indeed. With the Stargate and hyperdrive technology, races tend to think they have seen all there is to be seen. They think that their conflicts are the ultimate battles between good and evil. They never stop to consider what if their conflicts are insignificant, that they are just ants fighting for possession of a crumb. If and you and your conflict is really that small, is there any point in fighting? Alas, it won't matter. They will see their problems as the ones that determine the fate of the universe. I just wonder how Charles Martin will treat this information with his return."

"Fearfully," Halphas answered. "He has only confided in his team with the information about the harvesters's masters and excluded mention of it from his mission report. Clearly, he hopes he can prevent people from learning about it."

"He can run away for as long as he want," the hooded man said dismissively. "But he cannot escape the truth."

"And what truth would that be?"

The hooded man smirked in amusement, standing up and pacing the room.

"I do wonder," he said. "I always hear that the stargate would unite the planet, that countries would put aside their differences and work together. But I always wondered if they truly thought their wish through."

"I do not understand."

"Even now, there are countries and governments on Earth known for their mistreatment of their citizens. When they say people will 'put aside their difference and work together', do they expect to work alongside these countries? Do people realize that by uniting you will be allowing something like that to continue? Why stop there? Surely an infinite universe is large enough for a galaxy to put aside their small and petty differences and work together. Would the Tau'ri have been willing to put aside their petty differences and work together with the Goa'uld to explore the infinite universe? Or, when they wish to unite something, they mean conquer that which they see is wrong and replace it with someone in line with their beliefs?"

The hooded man said this with long bated breath, a twisted smile on his face as he chuckled at the notion.

"Is this why you were relieved to hear Charles Martin survived?" Halphas asked.

"Indeed. I wish to see him try to find the answers to these questions. He is an intriguing individual. I've always been fascinated by him and his desire to be the hero."

Halphas looked at his master in confusion.

"What do you mean?"

The hooded man summoned a hologram of Martin.

"Flight Lieutenant Charles James Martin," the hooded man said, looking at the image as text scrolled past the screen. "Ever since he was a child, the one thing he always dreamed about was becoming a hero."

"A farfetched dream," Halphas commented, reading the text floating through the air.

"Perhaps, but it was this dream that shaped him. He strongly believed in good and evil. He wanted to help people, to give to the weak and innocent! He took pleasure in it! He is exactly what people imagine when they imagine what a hero would look like."

"I don't see why that would be cause for fascination."

"It's because one trait that people imagine in all heroes is the sense of happiness they feel when they help others. People view it as a noble quality. But are they really good people? If they truly take joy in helping others, are they not simply doing it to fulfill their own desires? Are they not simply doing good to make themselves feel good? What would happen if you take a man who felt this way, and removed that sense of joy? What would happen if you took a man like that and replaced that joy he feels when he helps the weak and innocent with joy at their suffering? Is their kindness an act of true heroism? Or just selfish convenience?"

The hooded man so enraptured by the question that it was not the beeping of his data pad the voice of his subordinate that sent him back to reality.

"Sir, there is one more thing," Halphas said, looking at the data pad as new information appeared on its screen. "Our informants say General Mercer has gotten new information. We have word that the Typhon flies."

The hooded man smiled when he heard this.

"I guess things are about to get interesting."

-.-

 _ **A/N: Whoo. Sorry for the late posting. I hope it is to your liking. I had decided to change a few things at the last moments. One big on was Lok Dod. In the original, Dod was supposed to be killed. But, I decided to have him survive his encounter. Thought it'd be interesting for him, as the person who wanted to kill Martin, to form a sort of bond with him. So what do you think? What do you think of the harvesters? Do you think I should have kept Dod dead? Do you think Arcturus would make a nice addition to the expedition?**_


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